The Build Up
by winterschildren
Summary: A young woman, convinced that there is something else out there beyond the confines of her small town, moves to New York to find herself. Only she finds a lot more than she expected, and gets thrown in the middle of a war in the process. A slow burn, set during Avengers: Age Of Ultron.
1. Welcome To New York

**As promised, I hope you all enjoy it and stick with it.**

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The sun was ablaze, high in the sky, heating up the New York City streets for the first time in the long, cold months of winter. Icicles were melting, the streets lined with snowy slush that had been beaten down by thousands of taxicab drivers. But the sun was shining, and that was all that mattered to her; standing on the curb, cardboard box balanced on her hip as she stared up at the tall building that stood before her.

It was a completely different world than that of which she had been used to. For a moment, she wondered if she had bit off more than she could chew- becoming dizzy in the electricity that flowed and pulsed through the air. But that was only for a moment as she recalled her eclectic hometown, the gravel roads and mountains.

With a deep breath and prominent exhale, she entered the fray of double-breasted, suit wearing, businessmen and women who were in a rush to get back to work before their lunch breaks were over; trying not to step on any toes as she made her way to the front steps of her new apartment building.

Right as her hand closed in on the handle, the door flew open, almost knocking her back down those six steps and back on to the damp pavement.

"Woah, sorry. Sorry! I didn't see you. I'm so sorry." He couldn't have been more than sixteen years old; dark brown hair poking out from underneath the beanie he was wearing. He was clutching a bag of Skittles in one hand, and a computer keyboard was tucked underneath his arm. His northern accent was muddled by the sounds of him chewing with his mouth open. "Moving in?" The boy nodded to the box she had been clutching labeled ' **NECESSITIES** '.

"Yeah, thanks." She replied as he held the door open for her.

"Good luck!" He called after her. "Sucks if you live on the top floor!"

She took a quick second to process what he had just said, but the boy was gone by the time she had turned around to ask him what he meant. It didn't take long to figure it out though, coming across a sign plastered on the doors of the elevator ' **OUT OF ORDER INDEFINITELY** '. Caution tape hung loosely from the corners.

"Delightful," she mumbled to herself.

Her apartment was on the sixth floor of seven. She stared up her first flight of stairs, her insides laughing, her legs already feeling weak. There were teenagers littering the steps, smoking cigarettes and making out with each other; all of them ignoring the no smoking signs that adorned the walls on each floor. She thought about asking one them for help, but she was on her third trip, and if any of them were even slightly interested in helping her haul her heavy boxes up six flights of stairs, they would have offered. Instead, they were staring with hazy eyes and smirks on their faces. This was starting to look more like a college dormitory than an apartment complex.

A sigh escaped her lips as she sat the last of the boxes on the floor next to cardboard fortress she had already made. After nearly five hours, her legs wobbled with each step she took; calves burning, the heels of her feet felt raw and exposed in her Keds.

She dropped down to the hardwood, leaning her tired body on a stack of boxes, and looked at the space around her. Half of the apartment had already been furnished. The last tenant was a ninety-seven year old woman named Marjorie; a collector of Monet, who died in her sleep after consuming too much wine one Saturday night. The landlord said she only paid half of her monthly rent each month, and the rest in homemade macaroons. He could have made it all back, and more, if he had sold the paintings, but they still adjourned the walls; white sheets draped over them to keep the dust off.

" _She was a kind woman,"_ the landlord had said about the old woman. " _I don't think she had any family."_

Other than the paintings, there was an old couch, a kitchen table, and an armoire that were left behind. The refrigerator- which looked like it was one of the first ever made- had a collection of alphabet magnets on it, and little notes written in cursive. One of them was for Ray's Pizza, another was a reminder to pay the light bill. She left them both where they were, not wanting to disrupt Marjorie's space. In a way, the woman whom she had never even met, felt so familiar already.

She did pick up her phone, however, and dialed the number for Ray's Pizza; her stomach screaming at her after only being fed Chewy granola bars and Chex Mix throughout the day.

" _Thanks for calling Ray's, this is Ray, what can I get started for you?"_ His northern accent was thick through the speaker that she held to her ear.

"Hi, I'd like to order a medium pepperoni and onion pizza." She replied.

" _We got a special on all of our large pizzas tonight, would you like to upgrade or stick with a medium?"_

"You know what, I'm starving. Give me the large." She could hear the man chuckle to himself. "And do you guys sell drinks? I'll take an orange soda, if you have it."

" _We can do that for you. Will this be pick-up or delivery?"_

"Delivery, and I'm so sorry but our elevator is broken so it's a six floor climb."

Ray seemed to know exactly which building she was in, and with another laugh, asked which apartment number. Twenty minutes later, her pizza arrived, and she did not hold back as she devoured half of it in under ten minutes. Her glassware was lost somewhere in her box fortress, and she wondered how pathetic she looked drinking right out of the bottle.

Despite initially moving to New York to find whatever she felt was missing in her life; not knowing if it was companionship, a family she never had, or just adventure- a loneliness settled in her bones, worse than she had felt in a long time. Making her realize that maybe she hadn't been as alone as she had thought in her small town of less than 5,000 people.

Her fingers held her cellphone once more, lingering over the dial pad on the screen. There was one number she wanted to call, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. After all, she and her best friend hadn't parted on the best of terms. With a frown, she placed her phone back on the couch at her side and stood up, finally deciding to start on unpacking her belongings; hoping it would help keep her mind off of the past.

 _After all,_ she thought. _I am here to work on my future._

The sun had just began to set behind New York's skyline, filling the space with a glowing orange light. As she began to unpack the 'bedroom' box, a light knock came from the door. She ran a hand through her tangled hair, pulling an elastic from her wrist, and her hair back into a bun; trying to make herself look a little more presentable after a long day of driving and stair-climbing.

"Who is it?" She asked through the door, before taking a look in the peephole. A petite woman stood in the hallway. Black framed glasses sat upon her round cheeks, dark brunette hair framed her face.

" _I'm your new neighbor!"_ She exclaimed. With a few _clicks_ , the door was pulled open. The woman smiled wide, a plate covered with aluminum foil in her hand as she stuck the other one out excitedly. "I'm Kayla! My boyfriend and I live down the hall, and I just wanted to welcome you to the building. I doubt anyone has done that already."

"No, they haven't." She replied, taking the plate from her new neighbor. "I'm Emma."

"Well it's such a delight to meet you, Emma." Kayla beamed. "It's a homemade cinnamon roll. You don't have to eat it, but I thought it'd be a nice gesture after all the moving. What do you think about those stairs, eh? You know they say the elevator is out of order, indefinitely but the truth is that they just don't want to spend the money to get someone to come and fix it. Not that it's such a terrible thing, I've lost over ten pounds climbing those stairs."

Emma's eyes widened as she tried to keep up with the words that rolled effortlessly from the girl's mouth.

"I remember when Kit, my boyfriend, and I first moved in. Just be thankful you didn't have to carry your mother's china cabinet up six flights of stairs. _That_ was fun!"

"Well I really appreciate the welcoming gift, Kayla." A smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "But it's getting late, and I still have a lot of unpacking to do. I'd love to talk more, some time."

"Oh, it's no problem at all. We're in apartment 616, if you ever need anything. I could show you around the city or we could get lunch somewhere."

"Definitely! It was nice to meet you." Emma said as she backed into her apartment.

It took a little less than two weeks to have the apartment looking like a home. Everything was unpacked or stored away if she didn't need it. There was a bed, and a TV with cable. There was food in the refrigerator, and she even bought a few plants to sit on the window sil. But something was still missing. The loneliness still lingered in the air around her at all times.

Was it companionship, maybe? She thought of adopting a cat. She knew she wasn't going to find true love in the first day, but was hoping to at least have met _someone_ by now. And not her jibbering neighbor with an A+ baking skill. In all the movies she had ever seen, the girl moves out of her small town and finds her Prince Charming in the first hour of being in the big city. It's not realistic, but those rom-coms were the only thing she had to go by.

 _Maybe you should make more of an effort,_ she thought as she stared in the mirror after a shower.

An hour and a half later, Emma found herself standing outside of apartment 616, picking at the frayed ends of the scarf she was wearing. After having knocked six times, with no answer, she immediately regretted taking her own advice of trying to make an effort.

Just as she turned around to head back to her own place, the door cracked open. "Yes?" It wasn't Kayla, but a tall gentleman with curly, dark hair.

"Hi, I was looking for Kayla?" It was more of a question than a statement. "I came to return the plate she gave me last week. It's clean and all, I'm sorry it took so long." Emma could feel her anxiety rise. She hadn't met anyone new in years. She had known the same people her whole life.

"You're Emma, the new neighbor." She nodded, and the man opened the door all the way, offering for her to come inside. "I'm Kit, by the way. Kayla just ran to the store, she'll be back in a few." He said, extending a hand.

Emma gladly shook it, eyes flitting around their apartment, taking in all of the decorations. The walls were lined with pictures and little decorative lights, and there was a giant bookshelf with a hundred different books and movies. "That's beautiful." She breathed, pointing to a painting on the wall.

"It's one of Kayla's," he replied. "Most of them are. Except that one." She noticed he was pointing to a Monet. "Marjorie, the woman who lived in your apartment before you, gave that one to Kayla as a gift."

"That was nice of her."

"She was a nice lady," Kit said as he took a sip of his drink. Emma nodded and browsed over their book and DVD collection. "Feel free to borrow whatever you want."

"Oh, thanks, but I have a terrible memory and I'll forget to bring it back."

He laughed. "Well if you forget, just remember… I know where you live."

"Right." She replied, running a finger down the spine of an old copy of _Pride & Prejudice._

The front door swung open, causing her to jump. Kayla came bounding in, arms full of grocery bags. Her face lit up when she saw Emma. "Hello, neighbor!" She said excitedly.

She offered a small wave. Kit crossed the room to help her with the bags, and placed a kiss on her forehead. Emma's lips turned into a half-assed smile at their affection towards each other. "Emma was just coming to return the plate you let her borrow." He told her as he began to unpack some vegetables.

"It was delicious," She told Kayla. "Thank you so much."

"It's my mother's recipe. I'll tell her you said that, because she's still convinced I can't cook for shit." Kayla replied. "I'm actually about to make some dinner now, if you'd like to stay."

"I- I couldn't possibly. I really appreciate the offer, but I don't want to intrude." Her insides feeling tense at the mention of spending more time than she needed to with people she didn't know.

"It would be our pleasure," Kit added.

Kayla ended up fixing a delicious, homemade lasagna that the three of them scarfed down rather quickly. They told Emma the story of how they met. They were both interviewing for a job at the same company, and they both ended up getting hired. The sparkle in Kayla's eyes as she recalled the moment she first saw Kit was enough to light the entire room. Emma's heart panged with envy.

"What brings you to New York, Emma?" Kit asked as the conversation had begun to die down.

She had spent the last few hours trying to avoid talking about herself or her past. It was irrelevant, and unimportant, and not to mention boring.

A long breath escaped her lips. "I'm not really sure, to be honest. I came here because I felt like there was something else out there for me. I grew up in a small town, and I felt like a shark in a fishbowl. I needed a change of scenery."

They exchanged a look before Kayla asked, "what about your family? They didn't try to keep you from moving?"

She shook her head, pushing her plate away from her. "When I was six years old, my parents dropped me off on my grandmother's doorstep and never came back. I only really had one best friend, but she's married now, and focusing on starting her own family. And hating me, for leaving, I guess. My grandmother died two years ago, so… I guess, I don't really have any family."

She paused for a moment as her words settled. The silence in the room was deafening, and she couldn't help but immediately regret saying anything. There was a flash of pity on Kayla's features, but it was quickly replaced with a smile that relieved the tension that she felt. Emma wasn't sad when she recalled her childhood, which she always wondered if people found that odd.

"I wasn't dealt the best hand," she added. "But I made the most out of it. I think."

"You're going to find what you're looking for," Kayla said with confidence. "I just know it!" Her optimism reassured Emma. "And besides, you have us now! We will help you!"

Before she retreated back to her own apartment, Emma thanked her new friends one more time. Kayla had fixed up another plate of leftovers to take with her for tomorrow, which was extremely generous.

After she had stripped down to her pajamas, she sat on the bed with her feet dangling off, staring out the window at the vast New York City skyline.

She thought about all of the people that she could see through the windows, and what they were doing with their lives. Were they happy? Were they miserable? Did they like their jobs? How many of them were in love? In the distance she could see the Avengers tower. She thought about what it would be like to be different like they were. She thought about what it would be like to save the world, and have people look up to you.

What would it take for her life to be different? What would she have to give up? What would she need to change? What if she moved all the way here and this isn't even where she was supposed to be? Was she just wasting her time?

She pulled the covers back on the bed and slid in between the cold fabric.

"I'm ready for a change," she whispered into the air as she drifted to sleep.

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 **Most of this was originally the second chapter of When You Break, and you'll most likely remember some bits and pieces. There is an important cameo in here, and I'm wondering if anyone will catch it. If you know my works, you know I love backstory. But when I decided to revamp this one in particular, I didn't want to spend too much time on Emma's backstory in the beginning, and instead weave it into the story in later chapters.**

 **Turning this into a third person point of view, from it's original first person point of view was difficult. And I feel like I lost a lot of the flow that I had in the original piece. Trust me when I say that the rest of the story flows so much more naturally after this first chapter.**

 **Returning readers should be familiar with the playlists I include in each chapter. This story is no different. The musical inspiration for this chapter include:**

 **1\. Celeste - Ezra Vine**

 **2\. Lost In The Light - Bahamas**

 **3\. Trust Somebody - Jackie Greene**

 **Reviews are appreciated and encouraged! Thank you for reading.**


	2. February

**Warning: mentions of being kidnapped and drugged.**

 **Thank you to Whatshername for being the first person to leave a review.**

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Valentine's Day was a holiday that Emma never cared for. She wasn't alone in the world with her opinion, knowing that the majority of the single population despised the day. It was hard to not be affected by the Hallmark holiday, seeing as everywhere she went there were pink and red balloons, and bags upon bags of chocolate candy, and vendors set up along the streets trying to sell bouquets of flowers.

Her only serious boyfriend, Jimmy Webber, broke up with her on this day six years ago. And since then, she just didn't see the point.

Kayla was the complete opposite, apparently. For two weeks she had done nothing but try and convince her neighbor, whom she had appropriately dubbed the Ebenezer Scrooge of Valentine's Day, to come with her to the opening of a new nightclub downtown. It was supposed to be _the_ place to be, and Kayla just happened to get their name's on the guest list.

"I'm not going," Emma stated for what seemed like the hundredth time. She dug the heels of her palms into her tired eyes, as she scanned website after website for a decent job after eight years of working at the same movie theater in Luray, Virginia.

"Emma," her neighbor whined. Kayla stood in front of Emma's closet, rummaging through her outfits looking for something decent that her friend could possibly wear to this fancy-schmancy new club. "It's Valentine's Day. Aren't you the one who has been moping around here wondering why you haven't found the man of your dreams in this big ass city?"

 _No,_ Emma snapped in her head.

"Yes, you have." Kayla responded, seemingly able to read Emma's mind. "Trust me when I say, that guy is probably going to be at this club tonight. You _have_ to come! It's going to be so much fun, and I'll tell you what, if you don't have fun with us tonight, you never have to come out with Kit and I ever again."

A vulnerability flashed over her face while she thought about Kayla's proposal, and immediately her pint-sized neighbor jumped for joy, taking her silence as a yes. Emma sighed, defeated. She knew Kayla was right, and secretly, she pined to get out of her small apartment. She'd never admit that she actually did want to go.

"What about this one?" Kayla asked, pulling a short red dress out from the back of Emma's closet. "Put a leather jacket over it and you've got yourself the perfect clubbing outfit."

Emma ran her fingers over the fabric of the dress, remembering it's purpose. "This was the dress I wore to my best friend's rehearsal dinner." She was sad at the memory, wishing it was her friend here with her now instead of Kayla. If only she could just pick up that phone and apologize.

The feeling of Kayla's hand on her shoulder pulled her from her memories, and Emma saved face with a smile. "I suppose I can give it another go." She told her new friend.

Two hours, and a lot of complaining later, she stood in the middle of a line of scantily clad young adults. The brisk, February air had her shaking in the heels she was wearing. Kayla was also shivering, but claimed it was of excitement, and not because she was cold. Still, Kit slipped his jacket over her shoulders, and still Emma's insides cringed with jealousy.

Stepping into the club was like stepping into a different world. The air was warm with body heat, the lights were bright; flashing a thousand different colors and patterns onto the crowd beneath. Kit disappeared to the bar after Emma claimed that the only way she was going to make it through this evening was if she was plastered.

"Try this," Kayla yelled over the music. She handed Emma a blue concoction that tasted like cotton candy. Immediately she could see her friend's demeanor change. "It's good, right?"

Emma rolled her shoulders, already feeling the drink's effects. She slurped it down quickly, and Kayla was right there to hand her another. "I want to dance!" Emma shouted.

"That's the spirit!" Kayla replied, pulling her neighbor on to the dance floor.

Her body felt limber, passing herself off to different men while her friends practically made love to each other in the middle of the crowd. To Kayla, Emma was her desperately single girlfriend who needed company for the night, and that was exactly how she introduced her to every new guy she met. Hopeful to find her friend a Valentine before the night was over. This wasn't exactly where Emma pictured meeting someone to share her bed with, but the alcohol lowered her inhibitions just enough to where she was happy with whomever had their hands on her hips for the moment.

The bass vibrated her bones as she threw back another mixed drink, her veins no doubt drowning in vodka as her vision blurred. Her dance partner spun her around, but wasn't there to catch her when she couldn't find her footing. She couldn't remember how many she had, but it was too many if she couldn't stand, and she hated letting herself go so far.

She stumbled to where Kayla and Kit were dry-humping each other- neither of which seemed to be drunk in the slightest- and pulled her girl pal to the side. "Kay- Kayla I gotta go."

"I'm going to take her out back," Kayla informed her boyfriend. Emma could see her saying something else, but couldn't hear what they were discussing over the music.

Moments later, the crisp air wrapped around her, inviting her in like an old friend. Immediately she felt at ease, breathing in slow, deep breaths. Her face no longer felt flushed, her stomach no longer felt uneasy. She steadied herself against a wall, and chuckled at Kayla who still had a hold of her hand.

"I haven't had this much to drink in a while." She pointed out.

"You needed it," her friend replied. Emma could barely make out the features of her face in the dark alleyway. "I'm glad that you had fun tonight."

"Thank you," she slurred. "Thank you for everything. For being so nice to me, for accepting me. I couldn't have asked to find a better friend in New York." A hiccup escaped her lips and she giggled at herself. "I was so afraid that I wouldn't make any friends."

Kayla laughed, too, pulling her intoxicated friend into a hug. "What are neighbors for?" She replied. "It's just such a shame that you couldn't stick around."

"What?" Emma asked confused, wondering if her friend actually was just as inebriated as she was.

A second later, two strong arms wrapped themselves around Emma's small frame. A scream belted from her throat but was sadly cut off by a damp rag being placed over her nose and mouth. Her heart pounded, her mind raced as she fought against the person who had such a firm grip on her. The more she panicked, and struggled, the more her body felt heavy. Her limbs turned into liquid right underneath her, and her eyes rolled back and everything was consumed in darkness.

There was no telling how long she had been asleep. Her head was pounding when she woke, as if someone was trying to pull her brain apart. She expected to open her eyes, see the light, and be pulled from this nightmare. But she was still surrounded by dark. And as she became more aware of herself, she realized that her hands were tied behind her back; tightly bound together by thick layers of duct tape. The tape wrapped around mouth, as well. She tried to use her tongue to free her lips just enough so that she could scream, but only muffled cries escaped her.

Her legs were free, and she kicked and thrashed around in the back of the moving vehicle. But it was difficult to breath with the fabric over her face, and she fell winded rather quickly. She could hear her captors laughing at her as she cried, and even though she knew they couldn't hear what she was saying, she still begged for them to let her go.

The vehicle came to a halt not long after, and Emma strained to hear what was being said outside of it's confines. She couldn't make anything of the muffled voices. Her ears were ringing from the sharp pain she felt in her head. She twisted her hands rapidly, trying to free herself, but it only felt like the tape was getting tighter as the tips of her fingers became numb.

When the doors to the back of the van flew open, the cold air stung her exposed skin. She was no longer wearing her leather jacket, and her feet were bare. "Please," she begged through her gag when she felt a hand wrap itself around her arm and pull her to her feet. Her cries were of no use, and her tears wouldn't do her any good. She could feel the dirt between her toes as she was forced to stand, her knees shaking from the cold.

Through the fabric of the sack on her face, she could see the dim, overhead lights of the hallway. The air was stale, smelling of mildew and dirt. She fought against the men who dragged her through the hall, but their grips remained tight around her arms. In her mind, she tried to pay attention to the sounds around her; the buzzing of the lights, the clanking of a set of keys, the sound of rusty hinges being forced to move.

She was thrown to the ground, feeling the sting of her skin scraping the concrete floors. She could see a shadow moving closer to her, and when the fabric that enabled her to see was pulled from her face, she was met with a masked man. Her eyes widened in fear, seeing one of her captors for the first time. The man ripped the tape from her mouth, pulling the skin from her lips in the process. Emma sucked in a mixture of saliva and blood, and spit it out at the hooded figure in front of her.

Without even thinking, the man pulled his hand back and collided his fist with her jaw. She flew backwards, never having been hit before, and cried out in pain. Her hands still tied together, making it hard for her to regain her composure. He laughed at how pathetic she looked, trying her hardest to stay strong. Both of them knowing that it wouldn't be long before she was forced to break her facade.

The man stood and pulled the door to her cell shut. The awful screeching of the metal scraping across the concrete flooring made her wince. Her head now pounding more than ever, though most of the pain had redirected to her jawline.

"Where am I?" She screamed at the man before he headed down the hallway. "Help me!"

After what seemed like hours of screaming she could barely whisper. Her hands were bloody, the thick tape cutting into her wrists. She pulled her bound hands up to her mouth and pulled at the tape with her teeth, trying to cut the bind. The tape was too thick. She hoped that maybe the blood would provide enough lubrication for her to slip her restraints and try to escape, but it wasn't proving to help whatsoever.

As Emma laid in the dirty, cockroach infested cage, she noticed the lights began to flicker followed by a loud, electric humming noise; as if someone had just turned on a generator. A loud, blood curdling scream rang through the air moments later, and her heart began to race. Fear picked up in her, making her entire body rattle as she listened to the man cry out in pain.

When his cries stopped, and the humming sound had ceased, and the lights no longer flickered, Emma heard a door in the hallway burst open. Footsteps followed, and two men in all black carried a limp body down the hall, passing her cell. Her eyes swelled with tears, believing the man to be dead; believing that it would be her next.

"Anything?" She heard outside of her cage; a female voice, so familiar to her ears, though she couldn't quite place it.

"Nothing," another voice spoke. The man's voice seemed defeated, exhaustion clear in his tone. "No signs of enhancement. His brain won't take much more. Dispose of him, don't leave a single trace that he even existed."

"We never do." The woman spoke with confidence

Emma's eyes widened at what she had just heard. Her mind racing. Who were these people? What did they want with her? What were they going to do to that man? How were they able to erase him from existence? A man appeared in front of her cell. His face wasn't covered in black. He wore thin, round glasses that sat at the top of his pointed nose. His eyes were beady and black as coal.

"Ms. Shaw." He said, his German accent was thick. She wondered how he knew her last name. "Emma Shaw, that is your name? Correct?"

She swallowed the lump in her throat, ignoring the pain.

He pushed the door open and stepped inside of the cell with her. She backed away from him as far as she could- not wanting to go where she was assuming he had just come from- but met with the wall much sooner than she had hoped. The lab coat he wore was stained with dried blood, and she could feel her heart beating rapidly against her sternum.

"Don't be afraid, Emma." He reassured her as he moved closer. His hand pulling a syringe out of his pocket. "I'm here to help you."

She shook her head hard in protest, not believing his lies. "Please," she croaked. "Don't do this."

The doctor ignored her as he searched quickly for a vein in the crook of her arm. When he believed to have found it, he wasted no time in sticking his new patient with the needle; emptying the contents of the syringe in her bloodstream.

Her body fell limp at his feet, and he smiled to himself.

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 **Uh oh, spaghettios! What has our poor girl gotten herself into?**

 **The musical inspiration for this chapter include:**

 **1\. Nana - The 1975**

 **2\. This Is Love (King Arthur Remix) - Tritonal**

 **3\. Black Star - Lustmord**

 **If you really want to feel the creepy vibe I tried to set in the second half of this chapter, I'd definitely give number three a listen. Seriously, it's one of the most creepy songs I've ever heard.**

 **As always, reviews are appreciated and encouraged.**


	3. Tabula Rasa

**Warning: mentions of being tortured and drugged.**

 **I'd like to thank DYSTOPIAN PRINCESS for leaving a review.**

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When she awoke the second time, she was no longer in her cell.

Her body tensed after realizing that she was being restrained. Her arms were clamped to her sides, and her legs were being held down by thick brown straps. Several tubes stuck out from her skin, connecting her to the medical monitors that surrounded the gurney she was strapped to. She tried to move, but her restraints were so tight that moving was nearly impossible.

"Ah, you've awakened, how lovely. We weren't so sure you were going to." The bright light that was above her was moved to the side, and the same doctor from before was no standing over her now. He flashed a wicked smile, and pushed his glasses back to the bridge of his nose. "Subject 12: Emma Shaw, has passed phase one." He said into a tape recorder. "She is showing no side effects, and her wounds seem to be completely healed. We will be moving into phase two."

He sat the tape recorder down on the metal bedside table. There were dozens of medical tools, but Emma wasn't so sure they were used for medical purposes, or if they were torture devices. Despite his seemingly nice bedside manner and lab coat, she highly doubted this man possessed any form of license or degree.

"Now, Emma, I realize I have not formally introduced myself here. I am Dr. Arend Bösch." He held out his hand, but then realized that she couldn't return the handshake and laughed at himself. "Emma, did you know that humans only use ten percent of their brain?"

She reluctantly nodded.

"Did you know that we have the capability to become stronger, more intelligent, _enhanced_ beings? Somewhere inside of our minds, in the ninety percent that we aren't using, there's this power. A power that could change the human race, as we know it, forever." He paused for a moment, running his fingers along the table that held all of the medical tools, and then picked up the scalpel. Her heart began to beat wildly against her chest at the thought of what he might do with the blade. "We just need someone to find that power, and turn it on. Because it's like a light switch, Emma, and it needs to be turned on."

Suddenly, she felt someone strapping a device to her head. It felt like a helmet, but she wasn't that naive to believe it was for her protection. She tried to break free of her constraints, but she wasn't strong enough. The doctor smiled at me as he rubbed an alcohol swab in the bend of her left arm.

"I'm going to turn it on for you, Emma." He said as he injected another foreign substance into her veins. "Clear," he then said to someone else in the room. "Go ahead."

She immediately screamed in pain as an electric shock pulsed through her mind.

 _"What are_ you _going to do in New York?" Her best friend asked. Her words were laced with annoyance and sarcasm. Unsure why her friend felt the need to leave the security of their tiny town._

 _"I'll figure it out when I get there." Emma replied, taking a sip of champagne._

Her entire life- every moment- flashed before her eyes; playing like a movie in her mind. She tried to focus on the moments replaying in her head. She tried to focus on her friends, her grandmother, her parents. The pain spread from her brain to her chest, as her body tried to jump from the table. Emma could feel the electricity coursing through her veins, and for the first time in her life, she wished she would die.

Through her screams, she prayed this would kill her. Each shock felt like a thousand needles digging into her skin as it moved from her chest to her stomach, and down to her legs. But then it stopped, and she was still alive, and still a prisoner in the filthy operation room. Her chest was heaving as she tried to catch her breath.

Dr. Bösch smiled as he checked her pulse. She could still feel the tingle of electricity underneath her skin. "Again," he said with an authoritative tone.

"Please d-" Before she could finish, another electric wave coursed throughout her entire body.

 _A young girl ran through the giant house, searching for her friend, whom was hidden away somewhere, trying her absolute hardest to keep quiet so that her friend, the seeker, wouldn't find her crouched behind the sofa._

 _"Emma, where are you?" She heard from inside the room, knowing her friend was close. Just then, the tiny girl's head popped over the sofa and Emma screamed. "I found you!"_

 _"How'd you know where I was?" She asked, fumbling to climb back over the couch._

 _"Because I'm your best friend!"_

She could feel it everywhere; her eyes, her ears, her throat. The pain was so vivid, she screamed for it to stop. The doctor was applauding in the corner of the room, watching his patient with wide eyes as she suffered; hoping that for the first time, his experiments would reward him in some way.

Just then, every light in the room went out. Every machine powered down. Emma felt the electricity inside of her, down to the very core, like a battery that was fully charged. She tried again to break out of her binds, feeling that maybe now- somehow- she was strong enough. But they were still too tight. The lights slowly flickered back on, and the energy seemed to have drained itself from her body. She felt more limp than ever.

The doctor grabbed his recorder from the table, and removed the gadget from around her brain. "Heart rate 197 after shock treatment." He almost sounded excited. "How are you feeling?" He shined a light into each one of her eyes, checking the dilation of her pupils. She seemed unphased, muttering to herself incoherently.

"She's still alive," his female assistant interjected. "That's a go-"

"Hannah," Emma's voice was almost inaudible.

The doctor leaned closer to his patient. "What did you say?" He asked, his eyes flickering up to his assistant; his features were plagued with worry. "Did she just say?"

Emma tried to speak again, but she was too weak. Her throat was too sore. Her mind ached. She clung to the only memory she seemed to have.

"Her memories should be gone." The doctor stated, rummaging through the files on his desk. "I did nothing wrong!" He slammed his fists on the hard surface before he rushed back to Emma's side, hurriedly replacing the helmet.

"You'll kill her doctor," his assistant exclaimed. "We should wait until tomorrow."

"Turn it on." He demanded. The woman hesitated. "TURN IT ON!"

This time there were no flashing memories, no little girl running through the house. There were no screams as yet another shock pulsated through the young woman's body. She could barely feel any pain, and wondered if this would be what finally killed her. Her body jerked and contorted, her toes curled. But all she could see were stars. All she could feel was a tingling numb that washed over her like a wave.

They tossed her back in her cage where she waited for what seemed like years. There were no windows, no way to tell when it was daylight. No way to tell how many days had passed. How many weeks. Months. The hallway lights which were once bright and florescent, were now burning dimly; leaving her shrouded in darkness. Her body barely possessed a drop of energy. For as long as she could remember, she had laid on the same dingy floor, in the same red dress.

She was visited often by the doctor. She knew his name, Bösch, and that he was a compassionate man who was trying his hardest to help her. He would come and check her vital signs, show her pictures of things and ask her what they were; most of them she didn't know, and he would teach her. Every time he would ask her what her name was, to which she would reply: Emma Shaw- born June 6, 1989. He seemed pleased with her, but a disappointment still loomed over him like a stormcloud.

"We have to be getting close," one of the doctor's assistants said as the two of them stood outside the cell. "None of the other test subjects made it through the first experiment."

"Strucker has the twins," Bösch said with a sigh. "They showed signs of enhancement immediately."

"Strucker has the scepter." His assistant returned.

"I don't _need_ the scepter!" The doctor yelled, followed by a few profanities in German. Once he had composed himself, he looked at Emma. Saddened by what had become of her. The girl that he was so sure would become his prized pupil, lay catatonic on the floor after what would be her last shock therapy treatment. "Find me someone else. Tell them subject 12 was a failure."

Emma stared ahead at the duo, unable to move; unable to think. The assistant gave her boss a firm nod and left the doctor with his patient. He sighed as he paced around the damp room, hands smoothing themselves over his head. Infuriation flared through him every time he looked at the young woman on the floor. Twelve people he thought would become the next super soldier; twelve people he uprooted from their lives, and murdered.

"I'm so sorry, Emma." He said as he took a knee before her. "I thought you were going to be it."

Completely unaware of the situation unfolding around her, Emma had no idea that these were going to be the final moments of her life. She stared blankly at the doctor in front of her, a simple smile upon her face as she looked at the only man she had ever known. The doctor held out a syringe, and having become accustomed to receiving these injections, Emma held her arm out to him.

Mere seconds before the doctor was able to execute his patient, an alarm rang through the air. It's trill sounds blaring from the hallway, repetitive and loud, causing her brain to bounce in her skull.

"Don't worry," Dr. Bösch told her. "It's probably just a drill."

Gunshots rang through the air, followed by screams.

Two gunshots.

Three.

Four.

The doctor sprang to his feet, ready to run from whatever threat was coming. Before he could even make it out of the metal bars, his body was flown backwards towards the wall, a bullet hole right in between his eyes. Emma was incapable of words, as she watched the blood trickle from his wound. The killer stood in the doorway, his eyes- and gun- fixed on her.

He faltered as his finger hovered over the trigger. Emma stared directly into his dark eyes. She didn't scream, she didn't even move. The man couldn't have been much older than she was. His long, greasy brown hair was slicked under a baseball cap that tried to hide his features.

"Are you going to kill me?" The words struggled from her throat.

The man lowered his gun. "You're safe now," he said. She furrowed her brows at his words, wondering when she hadn't been safe. The only danger she had encountered was right here, with him. "Stay here. They'll be here soon. They'll find you."

Before she could think of the words to say, the man had run out of sight. There were more gunshots in the air, more screams. Her head still pounding from the alarm that continued to sound. The doctor, her friend, was now just a lifeless corpse on the ground next to her. She tried not to focus on him, but instead, focus on the words of the man who just had a gun pointed at her head.

 _You're safe now_. What did he mean?

Emma came to her feet, bones cracking underneath the pressure. She moved into the hallway, and down the length of the corridor, hoping to find someone. She didn't know who the man meant when he said 'they'll be here soon' and 'they'll find you'; but if 'they' were like him, she didn't want to find out. As she moved from room to room, Emma only found limp bodies and blood-lined walls. She didn't understand, her mind was too weak to wrap around it.

Each door she went through felt like a maze as she became lost in the building; now shifting her search from someone whom was still alive, to an exit. The only signs on the walls were those in a language she didn't recognize. She turned another corner, only to be met with the back of another man; this time dressed in a uniform of some kind. She quickly hid behind the wall, peeking her head out slightly to watch him.

"The scepter isn't here." She heard him say, though there wasn't anyone else with him. "Whoever did this is gone, too, and they didn't leave anyone alive."

Emma felt something scurry across her foot and let out a gasp, kicking the rodent away from her.

"Hang on," she heard from behind her. Her hands flew up to her mouth to keep herself as quiet as she could, as she inched down to the floor in hiding.

Footsteps approached her cautiously, and she panicked, not wanting to be captured. She didn't know if she should run, or stay put; terrified that she would become just like the rest of the people in this building. He body trembled as the man finally stepped foot in front of her.

"I've found a survivor." He said to himself. "What's your name?"

She looked up at the man as he strapped the shield he was carrying to his back, showing that he didn't see her as a threat. "Emma Shaw- born June 6, 1989."

* * *

 **I was going to keep going with this chapter, in order to move the story along, because I _know_ you guys don't care about Emma. You care about characters you already know... Like Pietro. In the summary, it says that this is a slow burning story. And Pietro probably won't even be introduced for another two chapters. In the long run, it pans out. But I know readers are impatient. And I'm sorry.**

 **The musical inspiration for this chapter is:**

 **1\. Abaddon - Lustmord**

 **As always reviews are appreciated and encouraged. :)**


	4. Purpose

**Warning: mentions being kidnapped.**

 **I'd like to thank BarbyChan4ever for leaving a review, and all of you whom have followed and favorited!**

* * *

" _Emma Shaw has been missing since February fourteenth. She's on the side of a milk carton for over a month and you're telling me that you found her in an undercover HYDRA facility in Germany?"_

Her eyes fluttered open at the sound of her name. They tried to focus on her surroundings, but she couldn't make anything of it. To her right sat a woman with cherry red hair, her nose stuck in the device she was holding. When Emma moved to sit up, the woman shifted her eyes to look at her.

"Steve," she called over her shoulder. "Don't worry, you're not in any danger." The woman held her hands up to Emma to show that she wasn't holding any weapons.

The man, Steve, she recognized from earlier; the one with the shield. "How are you feeling?"

As her eyes adjusted to the light, she noticed that she was in a medical lab; one much cleaner than the one she was used to. Her body wore a white gown, and she was no longer covered in her own filth and dirt. The constant headache that she had experienced was gone, and for the first time, Emma seemed at ease.

"What happened?" She asked, ignoring his initial question. She _felt_ better than she could ever remember feeling. "Who are you?"

Steve and the woman shared a glance before the woman mentioned something about human experimentation and memory loss, which only confused Emma that much more. "Ms. Shaw, you were kidnapped and taken hostage by a bad group of people. They did some very terrible things to you. You don't remember?"

Her mind traced through what little memories she had as if a new one would pop up. "I don't remember anything," she replied.

"But you do remember your name?" A man with perfectly trimmed facial hair and a glass of water walked into the room. He handed the water to Emma, which she took graciously. "Emma Shaw, born June 6, 1989. That's all we need to know."

A few seconds- and a few clicks of the device the man held in his hand- later, and a whirl of technology surrounded the troupe. A hundred different articles of what Emma assumed to be the life she had forgotten projected in the air. She saw her face, she saw pictures of herself with people she didn't recognize. Her eyes scanned each one, lingering on one face for too long.

"I know who this is," she told the others. Her fingers pointed to a young woman with long, sun-kissed, blonde hair. She was smiling with her arm dangling around Emma's shoulders. When she went to say what the woman's name was, her mind flushed. "I don't know."

"They'll come back," the red-head said with a reassuring smile. It made Emma feel hopeful. "The longer you're away from the electric chair, the more your brain will have time to heal. Your memories will come back, right Tony?"

The man gave her a simple smile, but it wasn't as genuine as the woman's. "Nat, take her down to the kitchen. She's probably starving."

As the red-headed _Nat_ led her out of the medical lab, she could hear the two men talking in lowered voices. "She can't stay here, Cap. Not when we are on the very brink of finding Loki's scepter. I don't have time to baby sit, and neither do any other members of the team."

"We can't let her go, yet." She heard Steve's voice. "She was experimented on. We don't know if those experiments failed or not."

Emma stared down at a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that Natasha had made for her. She wasn't sure if she liked peanut butter, or grape jelly. But her stomach lurched for the food. She could only remember slices of bread and cups of stale water. If she was lucky she'd get an apple or a peach.

In the short time they had spent together, she had been quickly updated on who her rescuers were; The Avengers. The world's greatest superheroes. With each story Natasha told her, she could practically feel her brain expanding with new information. She spoke with Jarvis- or the invisible man, as she liked to call him. She marveled over every new thing Natasha taught her; New York City's skyline and the Statue of Liberty, how a cell phone worked, milkshakes, candy.

It was as if she had been born all over again, but her new found friend had promised that eventually she would remember every single detail of the life she had forgotten. If anything, Natasha made sure to reiterate that.

"Can I become an Avenger?" She asked as she chewed on another sandwich, after deciding that she did in fact like peanut butter and grape jelly. Her question sounded a lot more childish than she had hoped.

"I don't think so, kid." She heard from over her shoulder. It was Tony. "We Avengers are really, super busy. And for you, it would take copious amounts of training to even maybe being considered."

"Tony," Natasha scolded.

"I think we need to chalk this up to what it actually is. When you're all better, when your brain isn't totally empty, we'll send you back to Queens and you can start fresh." He popped a candy in his mouth and flashed her a big smile.

"Until then I'm at least going to teach her some defense skills." Natasha piped up, wanting to help the already helpless young woman. "Every woman in New York should know how to defend themselves. If she had, she might not be in this situation."

"I think that's a great idea," Steve replied. He sat on the bar stool next to Emma, giving her a grin.

"Alright, but as soon as her memories come back her ass is in Queens, and we get this train back on it's rails. We got everybody out looking for the scepter, we are _this_ close to finding it."

She wasn't sure why they decided to help her. Pity, maybe. She didn't deserve to be among them. These were the most elite human beings in the world. The smartest, strongest, and the richest. She was minuscule standing beside them, and yet they treated her just like anyone else.

Natasha trained with her for weeks. Each day was something new, and they trained until Emma remembered every single move. When Steve was around, Emma would try her new skill set out on him. When he wasn't she would use his friend, Sam, who usually over exaggerated just how much she was hurting him to make her feel stronger than she really was.

And each day, Tony's words rang through her mind as if they were the only words she had ever heard; " _as soon as her memories come back, her ass is in Queens"_.

She was in the shower when she remembered for the first time. It wasn't much, but it played like a movie being projected right in front of her on the wall. It startled her, remembering her grandmother's house for the first time. She could smell the scent of baked apple pie in the oven as her tiny feet ran across the shiny hardwood floors, trying to find the older woman.

That was it, and the scene disappeared from her mind's eye. She could still recall the memory, the smells, the sights. And she played it over and over again until she was sure that she would never forget it again if she tried.

It took everything she had not to run to Natasha immediately and tell her what had just happened. She knew that if anyone found out that her mind was finally coming to, her experience here would end. Tony already assumed that her mind worked fine, and that she was lying to them, but Natasha assured him that he was wrong. Pleading her case to him most days that she could in fact join them after having shown extreme progress in the gym.

"You gotta tell me," she said one day after they had finished training. "How's your memory, really?"

Emma looked down at her shoes as the two waited for the elevator. "I don't want to go back to Queens, Nat." Her expression was sullen, having fully remembered everything that had happened in her first few weeks in the city. "Please, don't tell Stark."

Natasha shook her head, signaling that she wouldn't. The elevator's doors swung open, and the duo stepped inside. "What have you remembered?"

"I had neighbors," she replied. "I think they had something to do with my kidnapping. I remember my grandmother, the smell of apple pie. I know that I was born in Washington D.C, and that my parents dropped me off on my grandmother's doorstep when I was six, and they never came back. I had a best friend, Hannah. I know that when I left Luray, she hated me for leaving and I never apologized."

Once again, the doors slid open. Nat was the first to step out, her arm reaching back around to the number pad on the side. She pressed the button for the twelfth floor and gave Emma a sad smile. "You should talk to Tony," was all she said before letting the doors close.

Emma had never been in the lab before. As she stepped out of the elevator and further into the gadget filled room, she was terrified that she'd trip and break everything. Everything seemed so fragile, but knowing Tony, it was all unbreakable.

He had his back turned to her, hands fidgeting with some mechanics. "You here to plead your case?" He asked, continuing what he was doing. "I'm all ears, kid."

"I think I remember everything." She said firmly. "I know who I am. I know why I moved to New York. I know what happened to me. And more than anything, I know that I don't want to leave."

Tony sat whatever he was working on down, spinning around in his chair to look at her.

"I know that I can do _this_." She continued, her hands motioning to the space around her. "And the only way _you're_ going to know is if you give me a chance." His lips pursed together, but he remained silent. Emma felt defeated. "I remember telling my best friend when I decided to move to New York, that everything happens for a reason. A month later I was kidnapped, and I was experimented on, and I felt the worse pain I had ever felt in my life. But then you found me, and you brought me here."

"You're trying to tell me that you being here is meant to be?"

Emma sighed hard, her eyes looking up to the ceiling. "I'm trying to tell you- ask you- to please, let me stay. I will do everything I possibly can to prove to you that I deserve to be here."

"Fine." He replied curtly.

"Fine?" She asked, not sure if she heard him correctly.

Tony shrugged his shoulders. "Why not?" A breath escaped her lips, making her sound like his words had offended her in some way. But nonetheless, she ran to him, wrapping her arms around his neck; thanking him nearly a thousand times before she finally let go. "You've got a lot of homework to do."

"Anything you need me to do, Mr. Stark. I'm not going to disappoint you!"

The next months were filled with learning everything she possibly could. It was as if she was at school, with actual classes; how to handle a weapon, target practice, how to injure someone without killing them, self defense, hand-to-hand combat, combat with a weapon. And when she wasn't learning something from one of her mentors, or when they were out of a mission and she was stuck in the tower, she was doing nothing but studying the material they had given her.

Many nights, when she couldn't sleep, she even enlisted Jarvis as her teacher. Partly because she was lonely, partly because she didn't want to disrupt the others, and partly because Jarvis would talk for hours; spilling every detail of information he was able to about everything she wanted to know.

One thing in particular stuck out to her, or rather- one person.

After searching the entirety of Stark's archives, she finally found what she was looking for. One morning- as he sat at the island in the kitchen, eating his oatmeal- she dropped the file in front of Steve, making him jump slightly at the surprise. His eyes furrowed as he glanced at through the pages that he was already so familiar with.

"What about him?" He asked, and for the first time since she had met him, his voice was cold.

"I know him." She replied.

Steve's eyes snapped up at the young woman. "What? How?"

"The day you found me," she began. "He found me first. I thought he was going to kill me, like he killed everyone else, but he told me that I was safe and that 'they'd be there soon' and 'they'd find me'. I didn't know who he was talking about, but then you were there and you found me."

"Did he tell you where he was going?" Steve sounded desperate.

Emma shook her head, sorry to disappoint the Captain. "He just left."

The man pulled his phone from his pocket and quickly dialed a series of numbers. "Sam," he said as he stood up from the table and walked off in the other direction. "He's going after undercover HYDRA bases. Yeah, I'm sure. Because he was the one in Brotterode, where we found Emma-"

His voice trailed off as he walked further away from her. She looked back down at the vanilla folder of files on the table, her mind skimming back to the baseball cap wearing man that saved her life.

"Where's Rogers?" Tony asked, pulling Emma from her thoughts. He stormed into the kitchen desperate to find his fellow teammate. Natasha wasn't far behind, followed by Dr. Banner.

"He went that way," she replied as she tucked the file under her arm. "On the phone with Sam."

"You feel like travelling?" He asked.

"As in going on a mission?"

"This one's big," he replied. Her mouth salivated in excitement, and she almost jumped out of her chair. "It's gonna require the whole team and that includes you, but I'm not going to take you if you aren't ready."

Natasha gave her a wink and a smile, knowing that her protege was ready for whatever Tony Stark was about to throw at her. She had worked more than hard to get to where she was now, and she wasn't about to back down.

"Where are we going?" She asked confidently.

"Sokovia," he replied. "Pack your bags."

* * *

 **This is the last Pietro-less chapter! And also, the rest of the story will line up with Age Of Ultron; just adding Emma into the mix. I just want to say that I am on a roll! So the next chapter should be up tomorrow! I'd love to write it tonight, but I HAVE to sleep. My head feels like someone's trying to shove a brick in through my ear. Yikes!**

 **Musical inspiration is as follows:**

 **1\. Follow You - Bring Me The Horizon**

 **2\. Crossfire - Stephen**

 **As always, reviews are appreciated and encouraged. Thank you!**


	5. Proving Grounds

**Warning: fighting sequences.**

 **Thanks to all of the new followers!**

* * *

She had never seen anything like Thor.

In the few months she had spent at the Avengers tower, she hadn't had the chance to meet him. The demi-god was at the forefront of each mission, searching high and low for his brother's scepter. She couldn't keep her eyes off of the warrior- and Natasha, every now and again, would have to remind her not to stare.

The bulky giant paced around the quinjet with heavy feet, his hammer spinning in his hand as he walked. Everyone else sat quietly, while Tony and the Captain went over the plans. Emma already knew her job; 'stay with Rogers and don't get yourself killed'. It seemed easy enough, but her hands still shook in her gloves. It hadn't fully sunk in yet that this was dangerous, and each member of the team had their own job- none of which were, 'make sure Emma's safe'.

It scared her just how calm everyone was, albeit Thor, who still stomped around. Natasha sat at her side, checking each one of her weapons thoroughly to prevent any mistakes. Clint meditated, earphones stuck in his ears, silently pumping himself up for the job. Dr. Banner was the quietest of them all, brooding in his seat; facing the possibility of a 'code green', as he liked to call it.

"They know we're here." She heard Steve say, followed by a few blasts on the outside of the jet. "Emma, you ready?"

 _No,_ she thought to herself. "Ready as I'll ever be, Cap." Her smile was a facade, but she didn't have it in her to disappoint anyone today.

"Alright, everyone knows the plan." The star-spangled soldier mounted his bike, and Emma climbed on behind him. "If you have any questions, you might want to ask them now." His question was in no doubt directed at her, but she kept her mouth shut. "Hold on."

As soon as the jet touched down, Steve shot out like a rocket; his shield already flying through the air, taking out what enemies he could see. The scene was chaotic; bodies were flying around her, explosions burst through the air. She did her best to keep the attackers from Steve while he concentrated on driving; but seeing the team in action for the first time was keeping her from concentrating, herself.

A straggler attached itself to the side of the bike, and Steve grabbed him by the leg, tossing him with ease into a tree. The bike came to a halt, almost throwing Emma off in the process, before the Captain maneuvered away from the embankment he had almost crashed into.

"Come on, Shaw." He scolded her.

"I'm sorry." She replied, aiming her gun behind Cap's head, taking out two of their flying adversaries without blinking. "This is my first time, you know?"

Nat and Clint had ditched their jeep, running behind them on foot as Thor took out the tree stands. Above them, she could see Tony flying straight for HYDRA's base. Not far behind him was a bandit, trying his hardest to take him out before he reached the facility. Emma flipped the switch on her gun from short-range to long, and with one shot, knocked the agent right out of the sky.

" _Shit,"_ she heard Tony's voice through her ear-piece.

"Language!" Rogers warned. "Jarvis, what's the view from upstairs?"

" _The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield,"_ the program informed. " _Strucker's technology is well beyond any HYDRA base we've taken."_

Emma noticed an adversary closing in behind them, with one swift kick she knocked him to the ground.

" _Loki's scepter must be here,"_ Thor's voice sounded. " _Strucker wouldn't be able to mount his defense without it. At long last."_

Nat mentioned that this was already taking too long, and Clint chimed in about losing the element of surprise. Up ahead, she could see a jeep full of enemy agents. Emma raised her gun to at least try to take out the driver, but soon realized she was out of bullets.

" _Wait a minute,"_ Tony quipped. " _Is no one going to deal with the fact that Cap just said language?"_

"I know," Steve replied. Emma's eyes grew wide as her teammate closed in on the jeep with no sign of stopping. Not waiting for him to drive himself straight through the vehicle, she jumped from the back of the bike. Steve, hurled the entire cycle of his head and threw it directly into his target. "It just slipped out."

A HYDRA agent grabbed Emma from behind, and she kicked at his knees until he loosened his grip on her enough so that she could spin around and deliver a hit powerful enough to knock him unconscious. Steve gave her a nod of approval that boosted her confidence.

" _Clint!"_ Natasha yelled through the communications device.

Before Emma could even blink, a flash of blue knocker her teammate off of his feet and disappeared through the trees. "We have an enhanced in the field." Emma was confused on what an 'enhanced' was. Not having seen exactly what had just flown by her.

" _Clint's hit!"_ Natasha reminded.

"Stark," Steve interjected. He and Emma taking out a group of vigilantes. "We really need to get inside."

" _I'm closing in,"_ the Iron Man replied. " _The draw-bridge is down, people."_

Thor dropped from the sky, taking out a few soldiers and securing the area Emma and Rogers were struggling with. "Enhanced?" He asked the Captain.

"He's a blur," Steve replied. "All the new players we've faced, I've never seen this. In fact, I still haven't."

Emma looked through the trees, eyes peeled for any surprise attackers lurking around.

" _Clint's hit pretty bad guys,"_ Natasha reminded once again. " _We're going to need an e-vac."_

"I can get Barton to the jet," the demi-god informed. "You and Stark secure the scepter."

"Copy that."

A group of opponents lined up, heading through the trees towards the three Avengers. With one strike of Thor's hammer against Cap's shield, the group of enemies were wiped out completely. Emma was awestruck, staring at the two with widened eyes. She bit her tongue to keep from cursing in wonderment, knowing that the American Hero wouldn't like that too much.

"Find the scepter!" Thor reiterated, swinging his hammer into the air and taking flight.

"Head back to the jet." Steve told her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Be careful, keep your eyes open."

"But-" She started to remind him of the initial plan which was to stay by his side. However, the look in his eyes told her silently that she could do this, and not to doubt herself.

With a firm nod, she darted through the snowy forest, making her way back to the quinjet to help Thor and Barton. With no bullets, and only her fists to keep her safe, she used the trees as her cover; not wanting to come in contact with any _enhanced_.

As she ran through the woods, she realized that she should have been back at the jet by now. And when she saw the same smoking bunker, she knew that she was running in circles.

She heard a chuckle, but she wasn't sure if it had come from her earpiece. Brushing it off, she switched her direction south, hoping she'd find the jet sooner rather than later. But before she could set herself to take off, the same blue blur danced around her. "Guys," she spoke with worry. Her skill set wasn't capable of dealing with this on her own.

"Looking for this?" A voice picked up behind her, thick with a Russian dialect. Emma spun around quickly, her eyes meeting a silver-haired young man with a cocky smile. In his hand was her earpiece, and she wondered how he had come to have it. He crushed it in between his index finger and thumb and tossed it to the side. Her eyes grew.

His head cocked to the side as he watched her. Her breath swirling in the frigid air as she tried to control her breathing. To Emma, he seemed harmless, and if she was being completely honest with herself- which she never was- she'd even admit that he was pretty attractive for a villain.

 _This is why you aren't ready to be an Avenger,_ she scolded herself; hating that in a time of complete chaos, when she was on a mission, when she should have been absolutely focused on the task at hand- she was checking out the man who was on the opposing team.

"I think you're on the wrong side," he told her with a laugh. "Your friends are that way."

He pointed east, and within a second, he was gone. Just like that, a blue swirl lingered in the air for a moment as she stood motionless, completely confused at what had just happened.

When she got to the jet, Thor seemed relieved to see her; informing her that the team had been worried that she had been hit. She told them that she lost her earpiece and dropped down to a seat next to Clint, who's side injury looked worse than she feared. With a deep breath, she tried to keep her mind off of the guy she had come in contact with. Wondering what he meant by, ' _I think you're on the wrong side'._ Her body ached after being in her first real fight, she could feel the bruises forming on her arms and abdomen.

She listened in as the rest of her team finished the mission, with Thor keeping watch over the jet. Banner was the next to join the trio; his face distraught after having to turn green. He took a seat next to her, and immediately drew back into himself trying to calm down, classical music playing from his headphones.

On the way back to New York, Emma didn't say a word to her teammates. She sat, quietly, head resting on her elbow trying to get a nap in before they landed. It had been a long day.

"Change your mind?" Steve asked her, leaving his conversation with Thor and Tony to come sit by her.

She gave him a half smile. "You wish."

"You did good," he said reassuringly. "You're a hell of a shot."

"I almost got us both killed because I was distracted by everything else." A frown formed on her lips.

"Don't beat yourself up about it." He patted her on the back. "You made it out, that's all that matters."

When the jet landed, Emma headed straight for the kitchen. Her stomach screamed at her for skipping breakfast and then burning what little bit of calories she had left. _Next time_ , she thought as she rummaged through the refrigerator; _I'll pack a granola bar_.

On her way to see Clint, the elevator stopped a few floors short. When the doors opened, Maria Hill stepped on board with a tablet in her hands. She smiled when she saw the younger woman, and mentioned that they were going to the same place.

"What's that?" Emma asked, motioning to the video Hill had been watching.

"Oh, here." Maria handed the device off to Emma. "This is Wanda and Pietro Maximoff." Her eyes recognized the man instantly as the one from the forest. "You might want to study up on these two, just so you know what we're dealing with. They were experimented on, just like you. Only, they volunteered."

Emma's eyes didn't leave the videos and pictures she saw on the screen. Even when the elevator's doors opened, and Maria stepped out, she was too consumed with the image of of him playing over and over again; yelling Sokovian profanities in a riot.

"You coming?" Maria asked, still holding the door for Emma.

Her eyes snapped up, pulling her from her own little world and she followed Hill to Barton's recovery room. Dr. Cho had him in some sort of device that would regenerate his tissue, which was all way to scientifically advanced for Emma's attention span. She pretended like she was playing attention to the group, but the moment that she met Pietro Maximoff played in her head like a broken record.

There were talks of Tony's party. It was supposed to be an extravagant event. Emma had heard enough stories about Tony's parties of the past, and how each one somehow topped the last. This one was no different. She wasn't planning on going, parties never having been something she was fond of. The last party she attended, wound up getting her kidnapped.

It took Captain America himself to convince her, after Nat and Clint had both tried and failed. All it took were the words, 'you deserve to have a little fun' and she was putty in his hands.

"Now, gentlemen." Emma held the pool stick behind her back, hoisting herself up on the side of the table. "Let a lady show you how it's done." Sam and Steve watched patiently as she lined up her shot, pocketing her last ball perfectly.

Sam whistled at the ground, handing her a ten dollar bill after losing his bet that she couldn't beat both him and the Captain in a game of Cutthroat. She snatched the bill out of his hand with confidence, boasting about how people should start taking her more seriously.

Swing music played through the air as she racked up another game, this time only against the Falcon. "Double or nothing," he laughed as he chalked up his stick.

Steve also laughed as he watched his friend lose yet another game to the woman. As Sam fetched another bill out of his wallet, Emma noticed her drink was empty. "I think I'm going to stop while I'm ahead." She handed her stick off to Steve and made a bee-line for the bar.

As she waited for the bartender, she looked around at her surroundings. Everyone was laughing, having fun, dancing. It was almost too easy to forget that just three days ago, she was battling bad guys in a foreign country, and that just a few months ago she was a normal girl who moved into the big city.

Natasha sauntered her way over, placing her empty martini glass on the counter. She turned around, also looking out at the crowd, leaning back against the bar. "Is there something going on between you and Rogers?" She asked blatantly.

Emma's cheeks grew pink, though she had absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about. "I'm not currently looking for love," she replied. Her eyes caught with those of the bartender's and she motioned for him to hurry up so that she could exit this conversation as quickly as possible. When he finally got to the ladies, she hurriedly asked for a bourbon and coke. "What about Banner? Let's not pretend that's not strange."

It wasn't hard to tell that Natasha didn't like the tables being flipped on her. She pursed her lips and took a sip of her fresh cosmopolitan, muttering an 'I don't know'.

After the party dialed down a notch, and Emma had said her goodbyes to Sam- and wishing him luck on finding the elusive soldier she had met in Germany- she found herself laid out on a couch, her teammates scattered around her, ending the night with war stories and bottled beers.

"Come on, man. It's a trick!" Clint exclaimed as he motioned to Thor's hammer, which sat unmoving on the table.

"Ah, no." Thor replied with a laugh. He passed around more shots of his 'aged for 1,000 years' concoction that he carried around with him in a tiny flask. "It's much more than that."

Clint groaned. "He whoever shall be worthy shall haveth the power!" He mimicked Thor's Asgardian voice. "Whatever man, it's a trick."

"Well, please be my guest." Thor replied, motioning to Moljinar.

Emma let out a laugh as she watched him stand up and try to lift the hammer from it's place. It didn't budge, and then Tony was up to bat next spewing how he wasn't one to back down from a challenge. He even enlisted the help of Rhodey, and the arms of their suits, and still the hammer didn't move and inch.

Bruce, having a little too much to drink, tried his luck next to no avail.

"Let's go Steve, you got this!" Emma called out when her friend stood up next. Natasha threw her an amused look, which she ignored, hoping no one else saw the exchange. The Captain gave up shortly after, when his first two tries failed. And Nat wouldn't even step up to the plate.

Tony, not having liked being embarrassed in front of his other teammates suggested the theory that the handle was encrypted with a security code. Emma rolled her eyes at the billionaire, taking another swig from her beer as Thor explained why he was the only one who could control his weapon. The answer was simply that none of his mortal teammates were worthy.

Emma felt that her eyes were becoming heavy, and she knew that it was getting late. When she moved to check her phone for the time, a cringing, shrill sound pierced her ears.

"Worthy," a metallic voice drew out over the intercom. Just then, a beat up form of Tony's suits stepped out from around the corner. Emma's eyes, no longer tired, grew wide at the sight of the vile thing; oil dripping from every crevice, leaving a trail of black liquid behind it. "No," it said as it took a step forward. "How could you be worthy? You're all killers."

Steve moved to stand in front of Emma, his arm shielding her. "Stark?"

Tony called for Jarvis, while the robot spewed on about being asleep and tangled in strings. "I had to kill the other guy," his gravelly voice spoke. "He was a good guy."

"You killed someone?" Steve asked, his tone even more concerned than it was before. Emma could see the muscles in his back tensing underneath the blue button-up shirt he was wearing.

"Wouldn't have been my first call," the bot explained. "But down in the real world, we're faced with ugly choices."

Emma's fingers moved under the hem of her shirt at the glock that was being held by the band of her skirt. She was taught to be ready at all times, even where there wasn't a direct threat. She could sense, however, that this rigged suit was a threat. She pulled the gun out and cocked it, holding it behind her back for the opportune moment.

"I'm on a mission." The suit who had introduced himself as, Ultron, stated.

"What mission?" Emma asked wearily from her place behind Steve.

"Peace in our time."

Just then, two more compromised suits came flying through the walls. Steve yelled at her to get down, and Emma darted to the corner, firing off a few shots. He kicked the table in the air and dodged to the floor, beckoning for his shield that flew straight to him.

"Rhodey!" Emma screamed as a missile hit the Warmachine and knocked him through a window. She fired her gun, at the suits but she knew that bullets wouldn't stop them. These were Iron Legion suits, made by Tony Stark. They were near indestructible.

All she seemed to be able to do was hide in a corner as her more experiences team members took care of the problem. As Thor destroyed the last suit she crawled out from her hiding place, moving over to Dr. Cho to make sure she was alright.

"That was dramatic," Ultron scoffed. "I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to _change_. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to evolve?"

Emma stared into the electric blue eyes of the robot, processing each word he was saying.

"There's only one way to peace," he continued. "The Avengers' extinction."

With that Thor desecrated the bot with his hammer.

 _"I had strings but now I'm free. There are no strings on me."_

* * *

 **Sorry, got a little carried away with this one. I did mention that pretty much from here on out it was going to be strictly movie, right? I wasn't planning on stuffing so much into one chapter, though. Anyways! What a strange meeting with Pietro. Wonder why she has this weird attraction to him? Wonder what's going to happen next?**

 **I literally had to pause and play and pause and play and pause and play the movie over again to make sure I got most of the quotes correct. I don't want to be sued, so I'm going to say here that I'm not trying to copywright anything... Please don't arrest me. Ha.**

 **Musical inspiration for this chapter is:**

 **1\. Heroes by Danny Elfman**

 **2\. Nothing But The Best - Frank Sinatra**

 **3\. Sing, Sing, Sing - Benny Goodman**

 **4\. Birth of Ultron - Brian Taylor**

 **Reviews are appreciate and encouraged! :)**


	6. No Backing Out Now

**Warning: fighting sequences, mentions of blood, mind control.**

 **Thanks to Whatshername, Aquamarine6996, and nightmarehunter676 for reviewing!**

 **And thanks to all the new followers! Welcome!**

 **Also, Whatshername said something very intriguing in her review. Props to you for thinking ahead.**

* * *

The tower was a mess.

Broken glass, dry wall, and marble was scattered about. The furniture was broken, and lay smoldering after being caught on fire. Her teammates were beaten up, mostly minor injuries; cuts and scrapes, and Rhodey complained about a sore back after being tossed out of a window.

Emma's leg was propped up on Maria's thigh. Shards of broken glass stuck to the drying blood of her cuts and scrapes, making her wince in pain. "Hold still," the older woman warned as she pulled the chips from her skin with a pair of tweezers.

The team had reconvened in Tony's lab, searching for any more damage Ultron might have left behind.

"All our work is gone," Bruce said. "Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch."

Emma glanced up at Tony who was silently staring at one of his broken suits. The disappointment was clear on his face. Maria bandaged her leg, and gently removed it from her thigh, going to work on her own feet which were bloody as well.

"He's been in everything," Natasha sighed. "Files, surveillance; he probably knows more about us than we do each other."

A knot formed in the back of Emma's throat. She wondered if Ultron would attack their loved ones; Pepper, Jane, Peggy, Sam, and even Hannah. She frowned at the thought of her tiny town being annihilated by Ultron.

"He's in your files, he's in the internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?" Rhodey asked, crossing the room. Emma hadn't even thought of that.

"Nuclear codes," she replied with a frown.

Rhodey nodded. "We need to make some calls."

"Nukes?" Natasha asked. "He said he wanted us dead-"

"He didn't say dead," Steve snapped. "He said _extinct_."

"He also said he killed somebody," Clint reminded.

"There wasn't anyone else in the building." Maria replied.

Tony stepped into the center of the room. "Yes there was." He flicked his device in the air, making whatever he had on the screen come to life. Emma's heart dropped at the sight.

There, in the middle of the room, were the broken remnants of her favorite computer program. She could feel her eyes brimming with tears and she watched the golden ball of code twitch and spasm. Her mind recollected every sleepless night that she stayed up talking to the invisible man, and all of the things he taught her about technology, and the world.

"Jarvis was the first line of defense," Steve said as he looked down at his feet. "He would have shut Ultron down. It makes sense."

"No," Bruce replied. "Ultron could have assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy, this is rage."

Just then, the heavy boots of Thor came storming into the lab. Emma jumped from her seat, ignoring the pain in her leg. He grabbed Tony by the throat and lifted him in the air with ease, spewing out threats.

"Thor," Emma called. Instinctively, her hand was on her gun in an instant. She knew a bullet wouldn't stop her alien teammate, but it would distract him enough to let Tony go.

The blonde looked over his shoulder at the young woman, and dropped Tony with force. "The trail went cold about a hundred miles out, but it's headed north, and it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it, again."

"The genie is out of that bottle," Natasha said. "Clear and present is Ultron."

Emma un-cocked her gun. "I don't understand." Her words were directed at Tony. "You designed this program. Why's it trying to kill us?"

When tony started to laugh, Emma wanted to cock her gun again and really give him something to laugh at. She didn't find any of this funny. A killer robot could single-handedly destroy their lives, murder their friends and loved ones, and end the world- but Tony was laughing.

"You think this is funny?" She asked.

"No," he replied. "It's probably not, right?" Tony looked around the room at his other teammates who only stared at him in confusion. "This is very terrible. Is it so? It is, it's terrible." He continued to laugh, and Emma crossed the room, hand ready to smack the giggles right out of his mouth.

Thor held his hand out to stop her, and with a huff she stomped her foot and stormed out of the lab as the two continued to bicker. She jabbed her finger into the elevator call button, and tapped her foot as she waited impatiently for it's doors to open. She ignored Natasha's calls and stepped through, quickly pressing the button for the doors to shut again.

She looked around her at the mess that the fighting had created, and for a moment she wished she could make time go backwards. So very far backwards that she wouldn't be here.

 _This place is a mess,_ she thought to herself. Turning on her heel, she began searching the closets for a broom. She needed something to take her mind of of Tony's smitten face as he laughed at her, seemingly poking fun of her vulnerability and concern that he was going to get them killed.

"Jarvis, do you know where there's a broom?" She asked, forgetting for one second that she wouldn't get an answer. Her hand lingered on the closet door handle, listening to the silence scream back at her. This time she couldn't control the tears. Despite never having physically seen him, she considered him a friend.

She heard footsteps behind her and sighed, wiping the snot from her nose with the back of her sleeve as she swept up the rubble on the floor. "I don't want to talk about it, Nat." Emma continued to sweep.

"You're scared," the voice certainly didn't belong to that of Natasha. Emma looked up from her work, pushing her hair out of her face to see Steve standing there, arms crossed. "You have every right to be."

A sigh escaped her lips as she returned back to what she was doing. "I'm not scared," she replied. Her voice said otherwise, though, and she knew that he picked up on it. "I just don't understand. I'm not used to this, Steve. I've never seen aliens pouring out of a hole in the middle of the sky. I mean, I remember seeing it on the news, but I wasn't there saving the world."

"Hey," he said softly as he took the broom for her. "It's okay."

She wiped the tears from her eyes. "No it's not."

Steve's chest expanded in an exhale, and he let out a tired sigh. "Look, if you don't want to do this there are other things you can be doing to help out."

"What? No!"

It didn't come as a shock that he would offer to take her out of the field. He was the do-gooder, always making sure everyone was safe at all times, never killing anyone; he was Captain fucking America. And at the moment, that's not what Emma needed. She needed someone to sit her down, tell her stop being a crybaby, and suck it up.

"I can't back out now." She told him. "I don't want to. I wanted to be here. I asked for this."

She was lying through her teeth, and she prayed that she wasn't being completely transparent. She would fight through her fear, that's what being an Avenger was all about. Though she doubted Natasha, Clint, or Steve were ever scared. If they were, they did a damn good job at hiding it. Emma thought of it as another class; learning to hide your fear.

The next day Emma stayed in bed while most of the team searched through old files for anything that they had on Strucker. Steve had given her the day off, allowing her to 'cool down' from the previous night's events. And because she still wanted to slap precisely trimmed facial hair right off of her boss' face.

They were headed to Africa. She didn't know which part, or why. She just knew to pack a light bag just in case the mission took a few days. Emma kept a low-profile, not speaking out of turn or even at all. She no longer knew what to say. She no longer felt comfortable in the group of heroes. Her self doubt nearly crippled her, and she thought about Steve's offer constantly.

Her facade held, though. Not a single person asked her what was wrong, or looked at her differently. She held her head high at all times, not wanting to give herself away. Every second of it was hard, but it was her job- and as much as she didn't like it or felt uncomfortable doing it, she had to.

"Romanoff, Barton, and Shaw," Tony started. "I want you three on the perimeter. Rogers, Thor and I will talk to Klaue." Emma nodded as she looked over at Clint and Nat. "Banner, no offense but you're staying here."

"None taken," Bruce replied.

Upon entering the ship wreckage where Ulysses Klaue ran his black market arms dealership, the team realized that Ultron had gotten there first. The level of danger had skyrocketed from a four to four hundred and Emma couldn't help but feel her knees shake with each step she took towards her position on the ship.

" _Ah this is funny, Mr. Stark."_ From around the corner she heard a very familiar Russian accent, one that her mind had become accustomed to. As she peaked around the corner, she could see the form of Pietro Maximoff step into play, and suddenly her knees no longer shook with fear- but, excitement? "Is what comfortable? Like old times?"

"Focus, Emma!" She hissed at herself.

Across from her, she could see Clint staring right at her, telling her that he- and the rest of the team- had just heard that. Her cheeks flared red, and she knew that the man with eyes like a hawk could see that, too.

"You two can still walk away from this," Steve told the two enhanced siblings.

"And we will," Wanda Maximoff replied.

Within moments Ultron reared up his fist, and seemingly sucked the energy right out of Tony's core. This was the queue she had been waiting for. Though, they weren't only fighting Ultron and his hench-bots, but also African rebels who worked for Klaue. Two of which were heading up the set of stairs directly underneath her.

She waited behind a corner until the two men were in her sights, tossing one of Nat's stingers onto one, and tripping the other; his head bouncing off of a steel bar. She worked her way through the levels of the ship, making her way towards Nat and Clint. Her hand-to-hand combat getting easier with each man she fought.

"I think I'm getting the hang of this." She spoke, gracefully knocking a man out with a heel to the temple.

" _That's the spirit, Emma."_ Nat replied through the earpiece.

Just then, Cap's shield flew by her, knocking three men to the ground. She ran to go cover Clint who shot arrow after arrow from his bow, taking out countless rebels. However, something caught her eye to her left; a shaggy head of silver hair, shaking off a hit he'd taken.

"Ah! You again." His voice seemed surprised. Before she could blink, streaks of blue and grey whirled around her before he came to a halt. On the ground were two bodies of enemy men that she didn't even notice were behind her. "You should really focus more," he said with a smirk before he took off again.

Emma's hair flew up around her face in the gust of wind he left behind, leaving her awestruck for a moment before Clint's voice called through the intercom, " _incoming!"_ She was pulled from her chaste thoughts, and turned quickly; delivering two shots to the knees of the men closing in on her.

"You want to tell me what that was about?" Clint asked her, when she finally got in position to cover him.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Barton." She replied. He gave her a look before firing three arrows at the same time, each one of them programmed to hit their own targets.

" _Thor, status?"_ Cap's voice spoke in her ear.

" _The girl tried to warp my mind,"_ The Asgardian replied. " _Take special care, I doubt a human could keep her at bay. Fortunately, I am mighty."_

Emma shared a look with Clint, as the boat became deafeningly quiet. Emma turned, looking to where Nat had been, but she was no longer there. "Natasha?" She called to her teammate, but wasn't answered. "Something's wrong," she then said to Clint.

"Go," he replied. "And Emma, be careful."

She took two steps before Wanda Maximoff stepped out of the darkness. Her red eyes glowed, and Emma could feel her inside her head. Her scarlet magic flowing through every cavity of Emma's brain; filling the holes like liquid poison.

 _Emma looked up, her grandmother's house stood in front of her. The summer breeze blew gently across the grass, picking up the smell of sweet honeysuckle. The familiar streets of Luray fell quiet, and in the distance she could hear the porch swing creaking as it was pushed by the wind._

" _It's only for a few days." It was her mother's voice. And the six year old girl looked up to see the face she hadn't seen in nearly twenty years, covered in blood._

 _To her left, her father stood at her side. His hand rested on her shoulder. Emma's young eyes glanced over to it, and noticed that blood trickled from his sleeve. "We'll be back before your birthday." He said, his usually smooth voice was deep and distorted. Nothing like Emma remembered._

 _She watched, from her grandmother's arms, as they climbed in their car. "We love you Emma!" Her mother called from the passenger seat. "Be a good girl!"_

"Emma! Come on, snap out of it!" Clint's voice rang through her ears, pulling her from the dream.

"Dad," she replied. Her eyes tried desperately to focus on the man kneeling in front of her, but all she could see was her dad's face; and blood. There was so much blood.

"Come on, Em. It's Clint." He shook her shoulder slightly, trying to bring her back to reality. "I need you, Emma. We've got to find the rest of the team."

She slowly nodded her head, her mind becoming less foggy by the second. "What happened?"

"The Maximoff girl went all voodoo on everyone." He replied, twirling his fingers in the air. "Stark went after Hulk who's probably tearing the city apart right about now. The rest of the team is down. Can you stand?"

Emma nodded, and Clint moved his hands to her sides to help pull her up. The pressure on her right side made her call out in pain, and her partner immediately pulled his hand back and looked at her with a wild expression. "Well would you look at that," she pointed to the wound on her side where a bullet had clipped her.

"Jesus, Em. You gotta be more careful." He replied, wrapping a quick bandage around her side to stop the bleeding. "You going to be okay?" Again, Emma nodded and held herself steady. "I'm going to go find Nat. You get to Cap and Thor, make sure they're okay. Meet me back in the jet, we've got to get to Stark and Banner as soon as possible."

She followed the sounds of her friends' groaning as they had just begun shaking off Wanda's mind control. For the first time, she had seen Captain America on his back- looking absolutely defeated as he recalled the sequences of the dream he had just lived over again. Thor was on his knees, holding himself up on a metal banister.

Emma had no idea what her teammates had just gone through, but if it was anything like her own vision, she knew that they had seen things that they had stuffed deep down inside of them; pretending that they didn't exist.

The silence that filled the jet made her all the more uneasy. She wished someone would talk about something, get her mind off of her parents' bloody faces; their voices as they called out that they loved her, her grandmother's eyes filled with the deepest disappointment she had ever seen. Her eyes clamped shut as she tried, for the thousandth time to erase the image from her head, but the scene seemed to be burned into the backs of her eyelids.

"Where are we going?" She asked Tony, the only member of the team besides Barton who hadn't fallen victim to the Maximoff twins. Also the only member of the team besides Barton who wasn't currently asleep.

"Safehouse?" His answer was a question, not knowing if he could trust Barton's direction after having torn apart an entire city with Banner mere hours before. "I don't know how 'safe' anywhere is right now, if I'm being honest. What about you? Are you doing okay?"

She really wished people would stop asking her that. "I'm more worried about them," she replied as she jutted a finger at her sleeping teammates.

The Barton farmhouse was beautiful. To her eyes, it looked like home. She could smell the honeysuckle on the edge of the trees, the sun on the horizon gleamed on the early morning dew that stuck to the grass. Before she even stepped out of the quinjet, she could smell the smoky aroma of bacon frying on the stove.

"Honey," Clint said as he walked through the front door. "I'm home!"

Emma turned her head to look back at Tony who shared an equally puzzled look. Around the corner was a beautiful, and very pregnant woman who could only be Clint's secret wife that he had never told anyone about. Emma had her suspicions whenever Clint would sneak away to a private phone call, brushing it off as his 'girlfriend', then denying he ever had one. She'd catch him occasionally staring at a picture in his wallet, but she never asked. She didn't know what his story was.

It made sense now, the woman standing in front of her was in fact the woman from the wallet picture.

"This is an agent of some kind," Tony whispered over his shoulder.

"Gentlemen, Emma, This is Laura." Clint said, wrapping his arm around his wife's shoulders.

"I know all of your names," Mrs. Barton replied with a sheepish grin.

A rompus of footsteps flew down the stairway and two kids rushed into Clint's arms. Emma dipped her head, averting her gaze to the floor; the morning her own father abandoned her played clear in her mind.

"These are two smaller agents," Tony quipped.

As Natasha and Mrs. Barton reunited with each other, Thor- without a word- quickly stormed out of the house followed by Steve. Emma went to follow them, feeling out of place in the Barton household, but by the time she got to the door, Thor had already swung his hammer in the air and taken flight.

She opened her mouth to say something to Steve, who was still dressed in his uniform, as was she. Instead, she slumped on the white-painted bench that sat on the porch. There were little potted flowers that lined the steps, the pots obviously decorated by Mrs. Barton and her daughter- given the hand painted butterflies and smiley faces. There were concrete slabs with handprints indented in them, and multi-colored jewels outlining the rock.

Emma's insides tightened as she thought of the Barton family. Or just a family in general. The word was so foreign to her. When her grandmother died, she had lost all sense of the definition. She had friends, now, but it had only been Hannah for the majority of her life; and she had even somehow managed to lose her. When she thought of the team, she knew that they were all there for her, but were they _family_?

"Do you mind if I take a shower?" She asked Mrs. Barton after finally retrieving her luggage from the jet.

"I'm not sure how hot the water will be, it's first come first serve." She offered the younger woman a warm smile that wasn't reciprocated. "The towels are in the closet on the left."

As Emma peeled her tight, spandex uniform from her skin, she winced at her sore muscles. The bandaged Clint had half-assed wrapped around her ribcage had fallen to her feet. She had almost forgot that it was there, and when she looked in the mirror, she realized why. There wasn't a scratch on her- which, of course, was impossible; she should have had a nasty graze. Or at least a scab. A scar? Something?

Her skin was black and blue from the bruises, and the hits her body had taken from angry rebels and flying robots. But her wounds were healed, and all that was left was the dried blood that had caked around the area that should have been sore and infected. She hurriedly pulled down the rest of her uniform, unwrapping the bandage on her leg that Maria had patched up for her after the fight in the tower, and again there wasn't a bit of evidence that she had ever had shards of glass being pulled from her leg.

 _Maybe I wasn't as hurt as I thought I was_ , she thought to herself.

* * *

 **I feel like this chapter took two whole days to write, because I pulled an all-nighter trying to piece it together. In reality, most of that time was spent listening to every single Britney Spears song ever made and watching MackStan videos on youtube until I was cry/laughing so much I gave myself a headache. Even though it's not a delay, I'm sorry for the delay.**

 **The musical inspiration for this chapter is Britney Spears...**

 **No I'm kidding...**

 **1\. Ultron/Twins - Danny Elfman**

 **2\. Mortal - Fractures**

 **3\. Hulkbuster - Brian Taylor**

 **4\. Need It - Half Moon Run**

 **I'm gonna spend a little bit more time at the farmhouse. Hope you don't mind.**

 **Reviews are appreciated and encouraged! You guys are great! :D**


	7. Doubling Up

**Warning: self mutilation.**

 **Thanks to Steph and BarbyChan4ever for the reviews.**

 **Thanks to everyone who favorited and followed!**

* * *

"Enjoy your cold shower?"

Clint was sitting on the couch, arm draped over the back with a bottle of beer in his hand. He didn't even look at her, but she knew he could see her perfectly. She ignored him, moving to sit on the end of the couch opposite him. There was a football game on the television, and though she knew absolutely nothing about the sport- Emma turned her attention to it, avoiding Clint's prying eyes.

"I'd say you needed it after yesterday."

An annoyed sigh escaped her lips as he continued. Her foot began tapping on the hardwood floor.

"I mean, hey- if you have a thing for the kid then that's cute." He took a swig of his beer and wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his plaid shirt. "Just remember he's kind of working for the enemy."

With that, she jumped from the couch and stormed out of the front door; not wanting Clint to see her now rosy cheeks. The humidity was insufferable as she stepped out into the midday heat. The fresh air not clearing her mind like she had hoped. Her metaphorical plate was already full enough without Clint mentioning the problem that she just couldn't seem to get rid of.

If her mind wasn't torturing her with images of her past, it was fixed on Pietro Maximoff. She had only come in contact with him twice, and yet his effect on her was undeniable.

The smirk that played on his lips as he spoke to her.

His Russian accent dripping from each word.

The way his hair fell in his face when his accelerate body came to a halt.

Despite trying her absolute hardest to deny it, she just couldn't. With everything she kept hidden, this was the one thing that was brimming over the edges, spilling out for everyone else to see- at least, for Clint to see. And she hoped that he would keep it to himself.

Emma stepped out into the front yard, feeling the grass tickling at her ankles as her bare feet relished in the feeling of the earth. Steve was keeping himself busy with chopping fire logs; his body moving with ease as he raised the ax over his head, and brought it back down.

She watched him, leaning up against the wooden fence. The sun moved from the clouds, hitting her back. Her eyes fluttered closed as she soaked in the vitamin C. She could practically feel her body recharging, and for the first time in days, Emma truly felt better.

"It's not polite to stare, 'ya know?" Steve struck the ax through another piece of wood, and then turned to face her. He wasn't out of breath, he was barely breaking a sweat. "You look better."

"I feel better," she replied. "I mean, I'm not going to dwell on it. That girl didn't show me anything I didn't already know or suspect. What about you? I don't think I've ever seen Steve Rogers feel the need to chop firewood in order to keep his mind at bay."

He pursed his lips together and looked at the ground. "She showed me what I always wanted, but will never get." Her brows furrowed together, prompting him to continue. It wasn't often Steve dropped the act to pull back a few layers of himself. "Peggy."

Emma nodded, now understanding.

"I think the worst part is that as I was looking through the crowd of the speakeasy, there was only one face I really wanted to see." He wiped the back of his hand over his forehead, trying to hide the tiny frown on his lips.

"You'll find him, Steve." Emma replied, knowing exactly who he was talking about. "You found Peggy when you thought it was impossible. You'll find him, too. He's in this world, somewhere, and if anyone can find him it's you." He smiled at the confidence the young woman held in him. "I'll even help you."

"Why?" He asked.

Emma shrugged her shoulders. "I'd like to meet the man who saved my life. Even though I didn't know it at the time." She looked ahead at the barn and her eyes narrowed as she saw Tony emerge with a man she had recognized from studying countless S.H.I.E.L.D files. "Is that Nick Fury?"

Steve turned to asses the scene himself and a low chuckle escaped his lips. "Well, I'll be damned."

He took off jogging towards the two men, who were making their way to the front of the house. Emma followed behind him, taking her time. She had never met the former director of S.H.I.E.L.D, but already he intimidated her. His single eye staring her down as she got closer.

"Director," Steve began, still using his former boss' old title. "I don't believe you've met Em-

"Emma Shaw," the eye-patched man finished. "No, we haven't actually met, but I have met your parents."

Her eyes flew wide, wanting to pounce on the man with questions. He left it at that, and before she could actually say anything he climbed the front porch steps and disappeared into the house. Tony gave her a knowing smile, though a sadness glassed over his eyes, and she wondered what he all he knew.

At the dinner table, Emma held a glass of red wine in one hand and a purple crayon in the other- finishing the final touches on Clint in the portrait she had drawn of the team. His daughter sat to her right, giggling at the older woman's terrible stick figure skills; as she finger painted a butterfly.

"Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time." Fury said after dinner was over, and Dr. Banner had his hands in the sink finishing up the dirty dishes. "My contacts all say he's building something."

Emma took a swig of her red wine and nibbled on a block of cheese from the plate that still sat in the middle of the table. Nat sat across from her, eyes flickering over to Bruce with a twinge of a frown on her full lips. Clint and Laura were snuggling on the couch, a glass of orange juice sat in her hands while Clint polished off another bottle of beer.

"The amount of Vibranium he made off with," Fury continued. "I don't think it's just one thing."

"What about Ultron himself?" Emma turned to the sound of Steve's voice, not knowing he was standing behind her, leaned against the door frame.

"He's easy to track," Fury replied. "He's everywhere. The guy's multiplying faster than a catholic rabbit. That still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans, though."

"Is he still going after launch codes?" Tony asked.

"Yes he is," Fury answered as he continued to cut little blocks of cheese for Emma. She smiled at him graciously as she popped another one in her mouth. "But he's not making any headway." He threw her a wink with his good eye.

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare," Tony stated. Emma rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, well, I contacted our friends at the NEXUS about that." Fury quipped.

"NEXUS?" Emma asked through a full mouth.

"It's the World Internet Hub in Oslo," Bruce informed her. "Every byte of data flows through there. Fastest access on earth." He grinned as Emma made a face, letting him know that it was all too fancy for her. Outside of Facebook and text messaging, she wasn't that big on technology. Her iPhone was all she needed, and she didn't even need that much.

"So what'd they say?" Clint asked.

"He's fixated on the missiles," Fury replied. "But the codes are constantly being changed."

"By whom?" Tony asked as Clint effortlessly tossed two darts past his friend's head and into the bull's eye mark. Emma suppressed a smile at Tony's expression.

"Parties unknown," Nick said.

"We have an ally?" Natasha asked, piping up for the first time all night.

"Ultron has an enemy. That's _not_ the same thing." The retired director said, waving his hands in a motion. "Still I'd pay folding money to know who it is."

"I might need to visit Oslo." Tony interjected. "Find our 'unknown'."

"Well this is good times boss but I was kind of hoping that when I saw you, you'd have more than that." Natasha said, her words dripping with sarcasm as she took a swig of her beer.

"I do," Fury replied. His voice not at all surprised by Natasha's bite. "I have you. Back in the day I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else." His eye fell on Emma for just a second. "You kids had all the tech you could dream of. Now here we all are, back on earth, with nothing but our wit and our will to save the world. Ultron says that the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission. And whether or not he wants to admit it, his mission is global destruction. All this, laid in a grave." He stated, motioning to their surroundings. Clint's jaw clenched. "So stand, out with the platinum bastard."

"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk," Emma smirked.

"You know what, Shaw?" The Captain began, giving her a playful grin.

"So what does he want?" Fury directed the conversation back on track.

"To become better. Better than us." Steve replied. "He keeps building bodies."

"Person bodies," Tony added. "The human form isn't efficient. Biologically speaking, we're outmoded, but he keeps coming back to it."

"And you two programmed him to protect the human race," Emma began. "You amazingly failed."

"The don't need to be protected," Dr. Banner realized as he stared at the finger painting Clint's daughter had finished. "They need to evolve. Ultron is going to evolve."

"How?" Emma asked, taking another sip of her wine.

"Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?" Bruce asked.

It wasn't long after, that plans were being made for the next day, and not long after that when most everyone retired to their beds for the night- and Tony retired to the couch, keeping watch over the blanket fort that the Barton children had made so that their beds could be used by their father's coworkers.

Emma stayed up for a little while longer, cleaning up the Barton's kitchen and putting away all of the dishes that had been left on the drying rack; even taking the trash out and sorting the recyclables. She whispered her goodnight's to the young children who were reading picture books with a flashlight, ignoring their parents' rules to go to bed; and to Tony who was struggling to keep his eyes open as the TV glowed re-runs of The Golden Girls.

Before heading to bed, she stepped into the bathroom; her body shivered as her bare feet touched the cool tile underneath. Making sure to lock the door behind her, Emma grabbed a roll of paper towels from the linen closet. She didn't want to ruin any of the Barton's monogrammed towels.

Her hands searched each drawer thoroughly, being as quiet as she possibly could, and searched for something sharp enough to pierce her skin. She finally found a pair of trimming scissors as the very back of the far right drawer, and washed them under warm water to make sure they were clean. She wasn't exactly sure what she was doing, but she couldn't ignore it any longer.

With a sharp inhale, Emma dragged the blade across the inside of her palm. She cried through gritted teeth and clamped her hand shut, fist balled, as a few drops of blood escaped into the sink. When she opened her hand, the cut was still there; still bleeding. _Come on, dammit!_ She thought to herself.

She stared at her clenched fist, willing her body to fix itself. Moments later, the lights that adorned the bathroom mirror flickered. Her eyes widened as a faint glow emitted from her palm. When she opened her hand once more, the light had disappeared, and she wondered if she had hallucinated it. But she was amazed to see that the gash she had created was completely gone. Her fingers smoothed over the surface of her palm, tracing over the lines.

It was really gone. A knock emitted from the other side of the door, and she snapped back to reality. Not wanting to believe what she had just witnessed. "Just a second," she called as she tidied up the mess she had made.

The room Emma was staying in was across the hall. Without a word, she opened the door and brushed past Bruce, making a bee-line to her bedroom for the night. She opened and closed the door, leaning against it while she caught her breath, and her thoughts. She couldn't be special. She couldn't be _enhanced_.

Suddenly, she heard someone clearing their throat, and looked up to see Steve sitting on the bed with a book in his hands. He was staring at her with his brows drawn together, obviously confused as to why she had just burst into his bedroom unannounced.

"I'm sorry," she said after she noticed that she had disturbed him. "They told me this was the room I was assigned to for the night."

He sat up quickly, placing the book he was reading back on the bedside table. "They told me the same thing. Guess they didn't think we'd mind sharing." Emma only lingered against the door, her mind still buzzing from shock. "W-which, I don't uh, if you don't."

She pushed herself from the door, wiping her hand on her jeans to make sure there wasn't a trace of blood after what she had just done. "No, I don't mind."

"I'll uh, make a place on the floor. You can take the bed."

A light laugh escaped her lips at his chivalry. "There's room for both of us, Captain. There's no need in sleeping on the hardwood floor. I don't mind, if you don't."

She could tell that he really gave it a thought, and she wondered how long it had been since he had actually slept in the same bed with a woman, if he ever had. It had been roughly six years for herself, after her break up with the one and only boyfriend she ever had. After that she just, for lack of a better phrase, gave up. The lack of men her age- who actually had a decent personality- in her home town, was actually the main reason she decided to uproot herself.

"I don't mind." Steve replied shortly after.

"Okay then, don't look." She instructed him, and Steve placed a hand over his eyes and turned his head.

Emma stripped down into a pair of pajamas Laura had let her borrow. Steve didn't uncover his eyes until he felt her crawl into bed next to him. He smiled down at the younger girl as she pulled the duvet up under her chin, and she let out a small yawn.

"Good night, Steve." She said, turning her back to him.

"Good night, Ms. Shaw." Her friend replied, and with a click of the light, Emma was fast asleep.

* * *

 **Lot of movie dialogue in this one. Lot of not movie dialogue in this one. Simply speaking, there's a lot of fucking dialogue in this one, and I hate dialogue. I'm more of like a descriptive paragraphs type of person. Sorry for the lack of Pietro! I at least mentioned him! Don't worry, you get A LOT of him in the next chapter, finally!**

 **JUST SO YOU KNOW... There really is nothing but a brotherly, sisterly type bond forming between Emma and Cap. That wasn't my intention when I started this series, but after watching this movie twice in the last week, I realized that somewhere deep inside of me, there's this unconditional love for Chris Evans (after previously never finding him attractive or anything) so I just felt the need. Add it to one of the many things that will pan out in this series, eventually.**

 **Musical inspiration for this chapter is definitely worthy of your ears:**

 **1\. Holocene - Bon Iver**

 **2\. Gale Song - The Lumineers**

 **3\. Wild Horses - The Rolling Stones**

 **Reviews are appreciated and encouraged, and I love you guys so much.**


	8. Wrong Side

**Warning: none!**

 **Thanks to Whatshername, DYSTOPIAN PRINCESS, Stephanie, and nightmarehunter676 for reviewing.** **And a big thanks to anyone who gave this story a favorite and a follow!**

 **DYSTOPIAN PRINCESS asked a question, and I want to let her know that the answer is no. I mean, guarenteed I did not watch the Deadpool movie (I know, I am very late to the party), so if her powers ever coincide with his, it was purely unintentional. In fact, her abilities are loosely (very loosely) based off of the Marvel Comic book character "Dagger". As in Cloak and Dagger. Very loosely based. Hope that clears some things up.**

* * *

The left side of the bed was empty.

She noticed when she stretched out of her slumber, her arms splaying on either side of her; completely forgetting for a split second that Steve had shared the bed with her the previous night. But then, she remembered, and her cheeks flushed at the mere thought of sharing a bed with the likes of Steven Rogers.

It wasn't quite morning, yet. The sky- through the shades on the windows- was painted with deep pink and orange hues. Their part of the world just now waking up. Emma stretched again, her toes cracking as she curled them, and a moan escaped her lips. The truth was, that was the best night's sleep she had gotten in months. She felt more energized than ever.

"I'll take Natasha and Clint." Cap said as she bounded down the stairs. His eyes caught with hers and he stopped mid-sentence. She paused before hitting the last step, and averted her gaze; looking at Tony instead.

"Alright, strictly recon. I'll hit the NEXUS and join you as soon as I can." Tony replied. "Don't you just look spry this morning!" His attention turned to Emma as she joined the two men.

She gave him a shy smile and grabbed her jacket from the coat rack.

"I'll drop Banner off at the tower." Director Fury interjected, grabbing his own coat. "Do you mind if I borrow Ms. Hill?"

Tony agreed and Fury headed out the door. Emma, not wanting to miss what opportunity she had to talk to man, followed him out. "Mr. Fury?" Her voice was soft as she stepped out on to the porch, into the morning air. The sun was finally starting to pick up.

He turned, casting his one-eyed gaze upon her. "Ms. Shaw," he replied.

"I know we're all busy, and you've got to get going, but I was wondering if you could just give me a clue as to what happened to my parents. You said you had met them before." Her voice trailed off as she fiddled with the hem of her coat.

"I did," he replied. "They were great agents."

"Agents?" She asked. "As in agents of S.H.I.E.L.D?" Her eyes were wide, and her voice was hopeful until she realized that he said 'were great agents' and not 'are great agents'.

Fury nodded his head, answering the question she didn't even need to ask. "Look, Ms. Shaw, I don't think it's a coincidence that you're here. You're parents were good people and they loved you. That's all that matters." He pulled his lips into a slight grin. "Do you want a ride to the tower? 'Ts probably safer than chasing that lunatic around South Korea."

She let his words soak through her like ink on a page, before slowly nodding her head. He gave her a pat on the back- which is probably the closest thing to a hug Nick Fury had ever given anyone- and stepped from the porch; crossing the field to the second quinjet he had flown in on, and mentioning that he would wait for her there.

A giant weight felt like it had finally lifted from Emma's soul. The looming question of, 'what if my parents were still alive', was no longer being asked from a dark corner of her mind. She felt relieved knowing that they didn't just abandon their six year old daughter, and that maybe they would have come back by her birthday. And that she didn't sit there, celebrating her seventh birthday party staring out a window because her mom and dad were on a beach in the Bahamas, sipping on daiquiris.

"You forgot this," Steve's voice sounded behind her. In his hand was her backpack full of clothes and tiny bags of fruit gummies that she had coveted from the Barton's cupboards. "Is everything okay?"

She took the bag from him and slung it over her shoulder. "Surprisingly, yes." She said with a smile. "I'm going to head back to the tower with Dr. Banner. I'll see you there, okay?"

Steve replied with a nod.

"Be careful out there today, alright?"

Her feet carried her in the direction of the jet before she gave him a chance to answer. The last thing she wanted to do was linger. Especially when she was sure that most of the team saw some kind of spark between the two. And especially when they all knew that they had shared a room. And because she could practically feel Natasha's eyes on her from inside the house.

When they arrived at the tower, Emma headed straight for the files room, searching for anything that would bring her closer to her parents. Her eyes were sore from staring at a computer for so long, and she had lost track of time until Bruce brought her a cup of coffee, mentioning that she had been in the dark room for over four hours. He even offered to help.

For a while she found nothing, thinking that maybe a portion of the files had gotten deleted when Ultron cleared them out. Until, in the very bottom of a cardboard box, a manila folder was tucked away with the word 'CONFIDENTIAL' stamped across the front in giant, bold letters.

"Emma, they're back!" She heard from in the hallway. She stuffed the folder back where it was, vowing to come back to it later, and jogged out into the corridor where Bruce was waiting for her.

When the quinjet touched down, they were surprised to see Clint alone. He stormed out of the carrier, a worried expression on his face. She went to ask him where Steve was, but he cut her off with his own question. "Has anyone heard from Nat?" He asked with desperation. Shaw and Banner shook their heads. "He took her. Snatched her right out of the jet."

"Ultron has Nat?" Banner asked, his brown eyes were wide with panic.

"I'm hoping maybe this will lead us to where he's taken her." Clint said, motioning to the cradle.

Once they had rolled the cradle into the lab, Bruce began analyzing it immediately. It wasn't long before Tony flew back in from Oslo, and started helping Banner assess the situation. Clint had every piece of technology he could find set up, hoping to get some kind of message from his best friend.

And Emma just waited, pacing back and forth, not having heard a word from Steve since leaving him on the Barton's front porch. She brewed herself a pot of coffee, hoping that maybe it would soothe her nerves. It didn't. She wished she would have gone with them, and maybe Nat wouldn't have been kidnapped. Maybe she would have been able to help. As far as she knew, she couldn't get hurt- at least not for long, anyway. Natasha couldn't heal herself if Ultron did something to her.

When she looked up from her place at the conference table, Emma could see Tony and Bruce, and shockingly- a very familiar golden ball of code. Only this time it wasn't broken, and twitching, and dead. She jumped up from her seat and jogged into the lab, interrupting a very heated discussion between the two science buddies.

"Jarvis!" She exclaimed.

"How do you do, Ms. Shaw?"

"You're alive!" If she could hug the O.S, she would. But that would be strange, trying to throw her arms around a hologram.

"See," Tony interrupted. He was speaking to Bruce but looking at Emma. "Emma what would you think if we tried to upload Jarvis into this body?" Bruce rolled his eyes at Tony's dulling down of the entire process. It was a lot more complicated than that, but he didn't think Emma needed to know that right now.

"I think that'd be great!" She beamed.

"Yes, it would." Tony said to Bruce, a pleading look in his eye. "Do I smell coffee?" He then turned his attention back to the girl. She nodded. "Mind fixing me a cup?"

Emma returned shortly with two cups of coffee and Banner and Tony went to work on uploading the program into the cradle. She didn't know much about anything they were doing, but she paid attention, listening to every big word Tony spewed off at her; learning new things with every second.

"I'm going to say this once," she heard.

She whipped around to see Captain America, and he wasn't alone. Behind him stood the Maximoff twins. Her eyes fell on one in particular, and he held her stare longer than she expected. She tore her gaze from him as Tony, Banner, Steve, and Wanda began arguing over whether or not to continue with the upload or not.

Suddenly, silver and indigo streaks flashed around her, and in an instant every cord that supplied energy to the cradle was severed. Her cheeks flushed when Pietro came to a stop. "No, go on… You were saying?"

His sarcasm made her bite her tongue to suppress a laugh. And her eyes fell to the floor, to avoid anyone catching her emotions that she couldn't keep a lid on. Suddenly a gunshot rang through the air, and in a second, the Maximoff boy was on the floor beneath them. Emma lurched for him, worried that Clint had actually shot him, but was pleased to see him still moving, groaning in pain.

"I'm rerouting the upload!" Tony's voice sounded.

Steve threw his shield to disable every computer in the room, but Tony was quick to jump into a suit and send a missile right at Cap's abdomen. Emma yelled for him to stop, and rushed to Steve's side to make sure he was okay. He was up in an instant though, shaking off the hit from Tony's rocket, and pounced on his teammate.

She yelled for them again to stop fighting, but they ignored her until Thor appeared- seemingly out of nowhere- and jumped on the top of the cradle. He raised his fist in the air, summoning the lighting from the sky, and emitted it into the box. The cradle exploded, knocking Thor backwards, and out lurched a maroon and golden clad man.

He said nothing as he surveyed the people around him. He lunged for Thor, and flew through the air before coming to a dead stop in front of the outer window of the tower. Emma's eyes were wide as they bounced from Tony to Steve, to Bruce, and then back to the strange figure.

Thor held everyone off from going after the red man, waiting to see what he would do next. The room was silent as everyone came together to figure out what the hell had just happened, and who this new man was. Was it even a man, at all? Was it Ultron? Was it Jarvis?

Emma's racing mind came to a halt when Pietro skidded back, standing between her and his sister. She could smell a faint hint of cologne in the air that whirled up around her. Her eyes stayed glued to the stranger in the room, not wanting to become permanently glued to the silver-haired man on her right.

"I'm sorry," the man spoke. His voice was that of Jarvis. "That was odd. Thank you." He said to Thor. A golden cape formed out of midair and adorned his sleek physique.

"Thor," Steve said baffled. "You helped create this?"

As the demi-god began explaining the vision that he had, Emma became all too aware of the body heat emitting from the man standing next to her. He was standing just a little too close, and even though she didn't want to, she took one step farther away from him. Her eyes flittered back, landing on the Sokovian speedster before connecting with his twin's. The look on Wanda Maximoff's face was warning, her eyes peeled as -unbeknownst to Emma- the girl read every thought in her mind.

Emma turned her focus back to the group, cursing herself from becoming distracted long enough that she missed half of the discussion.

"Are you on our side?" Steve asked.

"I don't think it's that simple," Thor's vision replied.

"Well it better get real simple, real soon." Clint replied, coming to stand in between Emma and Pietro. She mentally thanked him for it.

"I am on the side of life," The vision stated. "Ultron isn't; he will end it all."

"What's he waiting for?" Tony asked.

"You." It replied.

"Where?"

"Sokovia," Clint answered. "He's got Nat there, too."

She glanced at him and released a sigh having heard that her friend was still alive.

"I don't want to kill Ultron, he's unique." The red man moved through the room with ease. "But he is in pain, and that pain will roll over the earth. So, he must be destroyed. Every form he's built. Every trace of his presence on the net. We have to act now, and not one of us can do it without the others." His steely eyes landed on Emma.

"Maybe I am a monster." He continued. "I don't think I'd know if I were one. I'm not what you are, and not what you intended. So there may be no way to make you trust me. But we need to go."

With that, Thor's vision lifted his hammer into the air to hand it off to the man who had helped create him. Emma's mouth hung open, as did nearly everyone else's.

They didn't have much time. The trip to Sokovia would be long, and this would be the toughest job Emma Shaw had come to face. She marched off to her room, collected her things, packed her bag and in under five minutes, was standing on the top of the Avengers tower; waiting for the signal to start boarding the jet.

She stood on the very edge, her mind in overdrive. This was dangerous. This could get her killed. This was more than she could comprehend. She didn't deserve to be here. She wasn't ready. Not yet. Everything was just too much.

"I should jump off of this tower, right now." She whispered to herself. Would she survive if she did? Would her body be able to fix itself after every bone in her body was shattered?

A gust of wind nearly knocked her off of her feet, and suddenly two hands were holding her sides; keeping her steady. "Please, don't do that." His accent was soothing. And the feeling of his hands on her hips made her want to melt.

When she looked up into his sky blue eyes, she felt the breath leave her body. "I- I wasn't actually going to." She spoke, the first words she had ever mustered up the courage to speak to him.

"You want to know if it would hurt?" Every syllable was like velvet to her ears. She swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded slowly. "I would catch you before you find out."

This person was a stranger to her, and yet, when she looked into his eyes the entire world melted right out from underneath her. "You don't even know me," she stated as her tongue slid across her bottom lip.

"I want to."

"I thought I was on the wrong side?"

"Pietro!" Wanda's voice called out from behind them, right as they had began to move closer to each other.

Emma pulled herself from him, his hands falling at his sides with a sigh before taking off to his sister. Clint's eyes were staring hard at her when she boarded the quinjet, and she looked everywhere but him before she settled into place next to Steve, who thankfully hadn't witnessed the interaction she had just had with her previous enemy.

No one knew what to expect. Tony couldn't lay out the plans, they didn't know what Ultron had in store for them. All they knew was that finding Natasha and getting the residents of Sokovia to safety was their main priority. Tony would be the one going after Ultron, leaving the entire rest of the team to focus on the civilians.

As Emma laced her boots up, she looked up to see Pietro pulling his shirt over his head. For a moment's time, her eyes marveled over his toned abdomen. The way his pectorals filled out his tight-fitting sleeves, accentuating his muscles. She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth, chewing it as she watched him prepare for the battle; her mind wandering into places it should not have been wandering.

He had caught her staring, but this time Emma did not look away with a shy smile to the ground. This time she held her eyes to him, hoping that they would both survive what was coming.

When the jet landed, the team grouped together for one final run through. "Ultron knows we're coming," Steve told them. "Odds are we'll be riding into heavy fire which is what we signed up for, but the people of Sokovia didn't. So out priority is getting them out."

The back of the jet began to open, and Pietro was the first one out with Wanda in his arms. She would be using her telekinesis to mentally manipulate the people of her hometown, make them believe that they were in danger and need to leave the city immediately. Bruce headed straight for the HYDRA base where Nat was being held captive, Tony and Thor were searching for Ultron along with Vision, and Emma was helping Steve and Clint on the streets.

"So," Clint started as they directed traffic. "D'you kids kiss yet? Or were you just re-enacting The Titanic back at the tower?"

"If you weren't so important to the team, Barton, I'd shoot you." She replied with sarcasm.

 _"We got bots on the streets!"_ Steve yelled through coms.

"You ready?" Clint asked with a smile, pulling his bow from his back as Ultron's accomplices closed in on them.

"Let's give 'em hell."

* * *

 **I wonder what could POSSIBLY be in that file!? Also, If Wanda can read minds, that means that she knows about Emma's ability. And wait... can't Vision read minds, too!? Guys, this series is almost over. But don't you worry your pretty little butts! There's a sequel. Also, Pietro is just- I love him.**

 **What's going to happen!? Ah!**

 **The musical inspiration for this chapter is:**

 **1\. Feels Like Coming Home - Jetta**

 **2\. Vision - Brian Taylor**

 **3\. Caves - Haux**

 **4\. The Battle - Brian Taylor**

 **Reviews are appreciated and encouraged! I would kiss you all if I could.**


	9. Before You Go

**Warnings: character death? maybe? blood, definitely. lots of fighting sequences.**

 **Thanks to Guest and nightmarehunter676 for reviewing.**

 **AND ALL THE PEOPLE WHO FAVE AND FOLLOW!**

* * *

Emma was doing fine until the ground began to shift.

When the earth began to rise above the rest, and the city of Sokovia began to lift into the air, that was when she began to worry. And this time, she wasn't alone. She could see the faces of her teammates; their expressions unsure, confused, scared.

" _Do you see the beauty of it?"_ Ultron's voice bellowed through the air. " _The inevitability? You rise before you fall. You, Avengers, you are my meteor. My swift and terrible sword, and the earth will crack with the weight of your failure. Purge me from your computers, turn my own flesh against me. It means nothing. When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world will be metal."_

She could see Steve on the bridge from the market square, as she fought to keep Sokovian's civilians alive. Ultron's bots kept coming; one after another, kill one and three more come out of the woodwork. They were everywhere like robotic roaches.

A very green and giant Dr. Banner jumped in to join her. "Nice of you to join us," she said to him before dispensing of a bot with a bullet to the eye. He growled and jumped into the air, pulling two adversaries out of the sky and smashing them to the ground in one fluid motion.

Thor and Cap were working effortlessly together; taking out an entire group of robots with the shield. As the demi-god conjured his lightning, he nicked a gas truck, and the explosion knocked Emma to her feet. The hulking blonde man was there to help her up. "Are you alright?" He asked.

"You want to warm me next time you decide to blow up a truck?"

"Thor," Ultron's voice sounded as he swooped down to grab Emma's teammate. She quickly ducked out of the way as Ultron carried him through the air. "You're bothering me."

Knowing that the Asgardian could handle himself, she turned her attention to help a struggling Rogers. He tossed her his shield, and she took out the foe closest to her, before throwing it back. It was something they had practiced many times, and Cap's shield was a million times stronger than her fists. She reloaded her gun, as the two took cover behind a disabled vehicle.

" _Alright, we're all clear here,"_ Clint's voice sounded through the communications device.

Steve gave her a look as she clicked her gun into place, and she nodded in return as if to signal that she was ready. "We are not clear!" He yelled, jumping over the back of a car to pull his shield out of a bot he had just nearly cut in half. "We are very not clear!"

" _Comin' to ya."_ Clint informed.

Emma took the other side, shooting to destroy. The two worked back to back to take out the surrounding enemies, both using the shield to their advantage. Steve commented on how well they worked together as he kicked the head off of a mini-Ultron like it was a soccer ball. Soon they were joined by the Maximoff twins, who leveled the playing field with their enhanced capabilities.

Finally it died down enough that they could focus on getting more civilians to safety. While she wasn't fighting off evil robots, Emma was helping Natasha attend to the medical injuries. The city was flying, and yet the major threat was smoke inhalation and bullets that had ricocheted off of something and hit an innocent person. Most of the wounds were only grazes, but some were a lot worse, and she didn't even want to think about how many casualties there had been already.

"What'ya got Stark?" Steve asked as he helped Emma in assisting some Sokovian's to safety.

" _Well, nothing great."_ He replied. " _That'll keep it from impacting the surface, if you guys can get clear."_

That would never be an option. Emma knew it before even looking at her Captain. There were too many citizens still up here and not down there, and there was no way for the team to get them off of the rock; unless Thor wanted to personally fly each person down to safety.

"I asked for a solution, not an escape plan." Steve quipped.

" _Impact radius is getting bigger every second,"_ Tony informed him, a sadness in his voice she had never heard before. " _We're going to have to make a choice."_

As Emma bandaged up the ankle of a young Sokovian girl, Natasha tried convincing Steve. She knew what the end game was, and so did everyone else. Her eyes found Pietro, her beacon of hope among the rubble and chaos. He was on one knee, placing a band-aid on a little boy's elbow, speaking to him in Russian; most likely letting him know that he would keep him safe, and make sure that he and his family would be okay.

He must have felt her eyes, because he turned to look over his shoulder and caught her stare. His bright, blue eyes so full of life as he gave her a small smile. She could have stared at him forever, but a familiar voice surprisingly took over the coms. Nick Fury.

She ran to the side of Natasha as a helicarrier came into view, hovering right over the edge of the cracked earth. Pietro flew by her, going to survey the flying ship, a giant and welcoming smile on his face. Emma jumped for joy, clapping her hands a few times as she saw the rescue boats deploy from the side of the carrier.

"This is S.H.I.E.L.D?" Pietro asked.

"This is what S.H.I.E.L.D's supposed to be." Steve replied.

Pietro smiled, knowing that his people were going to get to safety. "This is not so bad." Emma gave him a smirk, causing a little pink to creep onto his cheeks. He closed the distance between them in one fluid motion, and wrapped an arm around her waist, lifting her bridal style. "Hold your breath." He warned her before jetting off towards the civilians awaiting rescue.

She didn't even have time to take a breath before he was placing her feet back on the ground. The contact of his skin on her's, holding her to him as he skidded through the air made her palms sweat. She didn't have time to register the feeling, but it was there. Even the idea of him holding her made her weak at the knees.

Emma shook the thoughts out of her head, and concentrated on getting the people to safety.

" _Thor, I've got a plan!"_ Tony said through the earpiece.

" _It's too late, they're headed for the core!"_ The demi-god answered.

" _Avengers, time to work for a living."_ Iron Man replied, jetting off towards the church.

"Emma! I want you to stay here." Steve ordered immediately. She pouted, but the look on his face told her not to fight with him on this one. "Help Rhodey get the people on these boats. The faster we do that, the faster we can get out of here."

Pietro was already gone, along with Wanda, and Steve stood in front of her pleading to listen to him. "Be careful." She warned him.

She hated missing out, but she knew that everyone had their jobs to do. Right now, her job was to get these people to safety. With Rhodey at her side, taking out any straggling hench-bots, Emma's job was a lot easier than she expected. Most of Ultron's army were in the middle of the city, directing their full force on her teammates. On _him_.

But suddenly, with a flash of blue and silver, Pietro Maximoff was standing a mere six feet from her.

"What are you doing here? You should be at the church!"

Ignoring her question, he closed the gap between them in the blink of an eye. The closeness took her breath away, and before she could breathe in, his lips had crashed onto her's. Everything stopped; the screaming, the fighting, time. They were the only two there. The only two people in the entire world.

For a moment, the fight was over. She had won. She had gotten her prize. Everything was right in the world. Everything was perfect. With one hand cradling her face, and an arm snaked around her waist, he kissed her. She didn't stop him. Her hands played with the hair at the back of his neck, curling around the locks, while her lips worked with his effortlessly.

"Just in case." He whispered, pulling away and leaning his forehead against Emma's. He disappeared to finish his job before she even opened her eyes.

When she regained oxygen to her mind, she turned around to see Rhodey staring directly at her. She didn't need to see his face to know he was extremely confused. "Alrighty then," he stated before flying off in search of more rogue bots.

It had been hard for her to concentrate before, and he had just made it a million times worse. If he was going to be around, she was going to need to set some boundaries. Some rules. Rule number one, no kissing while during a mission. In the five seconds his lips were on her's, she saw stars, and she _still_ saw stars.

And it wasn't due to the high altitude either.

"Can someone help my boy?" She heard a woman's voice stick out among the chaos.

Emma noticed a woman carrying a boy, clutching his arm and covered in blood. He was crying, convulsing, and shaking. She rushed to him, taking him from his mother's arms, promising that she would get him help and that he would be okay. He had been struck by a flyaway bullet which had no doubt clipped an artery, judging by how much blood he had lost.

"I need a medic!" She screamed to anyone who could hear her over the panic. Her grip tightened on the boy's arm, applying the pressure needed to slow the bleeding. Her eyes scanned the crowd, and there was still no sight of a doctor.

"It hurts," the boy cried. His mother was also crying now, noticing how bad it was.

"Okay, I'm going to try something. Do you trust me?" Emma asked, and the boy and his mother nodded immediately.

She took a deep breath and rubbed her hands together before taking hold of the boy's arm once more, squeezing tighter than she had the first time. He squirmed in pain, making Emma wince as she concentrated on channeling all of her energy into her hands.

A faint, pulsating heat flickered in the middle of her palm like a lighter that couldn't find a flame. _That's it,_ she thought to herself. Her entire body jolted, and her hands began to illuminate. Not just one, but both, as the boy's wound began to heal. His eyes were as wide as saucers, watching on at the power that emitted from the hands that wrapped around him.

Emma could feel the energy leaving her with each second she worked to make sure his gunshot wound was completely healed. When the glow left her hands, her arms felt like over-cooked spaghetti noodles. She could feel each hit she had taken earlier, and her body became weak and fragile, as if she hadn't slept in weeks. Even her eyes felt too heavy to hold open.

"Can you keep a secret?" She asked the boy as he gawked at his arm. He nodded his head slowly, at a loss for words. "Good, don't tell anyone. You're going to be okay, now."

She came to her feet, having to use a bench to help herself up, and scanned the devastated city of Sokovia for the rest of her teammates. As far as she had heard, no one was on a lifeboat yet, and at any minute they could fall right out of the sky. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Clint and Steve, and immediately felt as ease. But the rest of her team was still nowhere to be found.

Streaks of grey and indigo sped past the two of them, and Pietro was at her side in an instant. She threw her arms around his neck, nearly falling against him. "Thank God," her lips murmured into his chest.

He placed a firm kiss on the top of her head.

"Nat's giving Banner a lullaby." Clint informed her as he jogged up to the carrier. Emma nodded her head, feeling as if she'd fall over if she moved a single inch. Pietro held on to her hand, keeping her upright. His expression just as concerned as Clint's. "You alright? You don't look so good."

"I'm tired." She replied, her voice low and defeated.

"Here, sit." Pietro ordered, leading her over to an empty bench.

Behind them, a mother was crying for her child, her eyes peeling the city for her boy. Clint jetted from the boat towards the market. Emma called for him, but he ignored her as he ran across the courtyard. In the distance, the quinjet flew over, firing a hailstorm of bullets, targeting her team members. Cap used his shield to protect himself, throwing it up in the air towards the rogue jet, but was unsuccessful in taking it down.

It was headed straight for Clint, who was now holding the lost child in his arms as the bullets began to fly. Emma's eyes were wide as she screamed for Clint, and with a flash, Pietro was no longer sitting next to her. She had hope that he would be fast enough to pull Clint and the boy out of the way.

But when the dust settled, and the jet flew off into the horizon, she noticed Pietro's usual blue gear was stained with red.

"Y-you didn't s-see that coming?"

His voice rang through her earpiece as she watched his body drop to the ground. Emma screamed as she ran towards him, praying that he was alive. Praying that it wasn't too late.

Clint and Steve watched on with wide, sad eyes as she fell at his side, rolling him on to his back.

"No, no, no!" She cried, her vision becoming blurred with the bite of tears. She placed her hands firm on his chest and screamed at herself to fix this. "Come on!" Her hands became covered in blood as she moved them around his chest, trying to make that light glow one more time. Even if it never came back, even if it was all the power she had left in her; she would use every last drop in order to save him.

"Emma," she heard Steve's voice behind her. Ignoring him, she continued willing the energy to come back. But her body was drained. The metaphorical battery inside of her was dead. And because of it, so was Pietro. "Emma, we gotta go."

"No!" She bit back. "I can fix this!"

"Emma, at any second this rock is going to fall right out from underneath us." He placed a hand on her shoulder, pulling her back from the lifeless man underneath her. "Please." His voice was low and pleading. Emma still sat motionless, wondering why it wouldn't work now. "Emma, please."

Steve lifted Pietro from the ground, carrying him to the jet. When he placed him back down, Emma was right back at his side, still trying with every fiber of her being to heal him. "Please," she cried as Clint laid back on the bench above her. Her head resting on Pietro's chest. "Please, come back to me."

When Sokovia dropped from the sky, she wished she would have gone with it.

* * *

 **Why do I feel like this chapter sucked terribly? After reading it three times, it's literally garbage. There's too much going on. I need to find a way to include the movie without including it. If that makes sense.**

 **In other news, Emma can heal others. Sometimes. When it's not important. Not that the little boy wasn't important. It just would have been great if she actually PRACTICED USING HER ABILITY instead of trying to conceal it from literally everyone. There are people who can help her learn how to use it (*cough* Wanda *cough*). Sometimes my characters do stupid things.**

 **Now, I don't want you to think Pietro is dead. He might not be dead. But the next chapter is the last chapter before the sequel Near To You. Speaking of the sequel, does anyone here like Bucky Barnes? Because it's definitely based during Civil War. I'm still obsessed with that movie and I just NEED to write something about it.**

 **To kill or not to kill Pietro. That is the question.**

 **I wrote this chapter in silence, which is so crazy. Maybe that's why it sucked. But I was getting so distracted singing 90's RnB. Idfk.**

 **Reviews are appreciated and encouraged!**


	10. End Credits

**Warning: last chapter, very short.**

 **Thank you to nightmarehunter676, Wolfy-Queen, and Haunted Cinders for reviewing.**

* * *

When they came to take his body, she held on as long as she could, still clinging to the hope that just one tiny flicker of her light would bring him back. Steve tried his hardest to console her, but she just sat there; staring at her blood stained hands, questioning herself. Wanda was distraught, looking to anyone for answers as to why her brother was dead, and why she couldn't see his body.

No one had an answer for her, except Emma. She could have saved him, but she was too weak. She let her brother die, because she wasn't strong enough. Because she doesn't know how to control the gift she had been given. She doesn't deserve such power if she can't wield it.

 _What was the point in finding out you can heal people, only to have the most important one die in your arms?_ The question shot through her mind like gunfire; a sound she wished she could forget.

Time passed, and people moved on. Clint went home, had a son, spent time with his family. Bruce was probably in Fiji. Thor went back to Asgard. Tony had an all new facility built on one hundred acres of land in upstate New York. There was a pool, arcade, everyone had their own room. Even Wanda seemed to shine a little bit brighter with each day that passed.

But Emma shut herself out.

The team tried. Every day they came to her door, well, Steve and Sam came to her door; offering pizza, her favorite movie on DVD, and even once suggested they binge watch Gilmore Girls from the beginning. He didn't know what that was, but he knew she liked it, and all he wanted was for her to be happy. Natasha tried once, offering some female companionship, but Emma refused that as well.

Vision didn't even knock. He just phased through her wall, leaving a tray of food on the edge of her bed. He wouldn't say a word, or stay any longer than he needed to. And she was so thankful for that. All she wanted was to be alone, to torture herself with her own thoughts.

She wasn't surprised to hear the sound of knuckles rapping on her door one rainy afternoon. She was in the middle of a documentary about space, and once again, did not feel like being bothered. "I'm not interested, Steve. Please stop asking." Her voice was hoarse as she scolded him, not even answering the door or asking who it was; assuming it was the perfect hero.

"Emma, it's Wanda."

Her ears perked at the sound of the Sokovian accent on the other side of the door. Despite the fact that her door had been previously locked, she heard a soft clicking sound of Wanda ignoring Emma's quest for solitude. Within a second, her door was being opened, and Wanda's long brown hair poked through the threshold.

Emma could feel the dip in the bed where she took a seat on the edge, and peaked out from the covers she was cradled in. The sight of the dark haired beauty made her want to cry, and she soon felt herself biting back the tears. She wasn't worthy of Wanda's time. Not after what happened. The Scarlet Witch waited for Emma to pull herself from the cocoon she was buried in.

"When we first met, I looked inside your head and I saw your entire life. I played with your insecurities, and your pain, and I want to apologize." Emma's brows came together, wondering why in hell Wanda Maximoff would be apologizing to _her_. "When we met a second time, I looked into your head again, and I saw _it_. I saw the light that lives inside of you, and I saw what it could do."

Emma glanced down at her hands, pulling her legs inward to sit with her legs crossed.

"And I felt what you felt for Pietro," Wanda continued. "I know it was real, and I know it's been hard for you, and I know you tried to do what you could to save him." Her eyes glowed red as she dipped into Emma's mind again, searching for something. "It's not your fault," she replied to the thoughts she had just read. "You can't blame yourself. No one else blames you."

"No one else knows," Emma interrupted. "About this." She held her hand up and tried to ignite the light. She felt it spark up, a slight tingling in the middle of her palm, but it was weak. It hadn't been the same since that day.

"What I'm saying is I don't blame you." Wanda stated. "I want you to have this." In her hands was a familiar navy, blue hoodie with a series of arrows tracing up the sleeves. Pietro's jacket. "He would have wanted you to have it."

Emma's fingers traced the fabric, feeling it's softness underneath her fingertips. She brought it to her face, taking in a deep breath, letting the very faint smell of Pietro Maximoff swirl in her senses. It wasn't enough, and she knew that she would wear the smell out before she was able to commit it to memory. She'd wear it every night if it made her feel like it was he who was wrapped around her.

"What is it?" Wanda asked as Emma stared blankly at the jacket. She didn't steep into the woman's mind, wanting her to have an actual conversation with her instead of it being one-sided. To Wanda, it seemed like it had been months since she had spoken more than three words to Emma. Those three words usually were 'you almost done', and they were spoken through the bathroom door.

"I just wish there could have been more." Emma replied. "I wish I could have done more, yeah, but what really kills me is not knowing what could have been. Would it have worked? Would we have fallen in love? Would we have lived happily ever after? I'll never know." She slipped the jacket over her bare arms and closed her eyes, recalling the moment they shared their first and only kiss. Wanda could see it, too, and her eyes fell from Emma's face. "He was a stranger, and yet it was as if I had known him my whole life."

Wanda offered her a small smile. "You can't dwell on it, now. Believe me when I say he would want you to get off your ass, suck it up, and live." She grabbed Emma's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "That's what gets me through."

Emma nodded her head, still struggling to hold back the tears that were brimming on her lash line. She glanced down at her phone to check the time but it was dead. "I need a new phone," Emma mentioned. The change of subject shifted the air entirely. Wanda seemed happy that she had gotten Emma to actually talk. "Mine keeps dying. It'll be charged, and then within an hour it's dead again."

She plugged her phone into the charger, and waited until it turned back on. Suddenly, out of the palm of her left hand, a dagger of white light exploded into the air and towards the ceiling. The quick burst startled the girls. And almost as quickly as it showed, it disappeared, leaving both Emma and Wanda bewildered as they stared at the space above them. The girls shared a look, and then Emma looked down to her cell phone. It wasn't even charging anymore. She tried to turn on the light, but realized that it wouldn't turn on either. And that her breaker must have short-circuited.

"What the hell was that?" Emma asked, holding her hand up in the air, pointed away from them just in case it happened again.

"That was you!" Wanda smiled from ear to ear, near disbelief in her voice. "Do it again!"

* * *

 **So here's a summary list of what you're going to get in Near To You:**

 **1\. Emma learning all about her abilities** **2\. Bucky Barnes** **3\. Wanda/Emma friendship** **4\. A shit ton Cap/Emma friendship** **5\. Is Pietro really dead tho? I mean, really?** **6\. Better writing because there isn't too much going on in CW, like there is in AOU. (** **So if you think that sounds like something you'd want to read, by all means keep you peepers open for that. It will be out real soon. Like I've already written half of it)** **Thank you all so much for reading. I hope you continue to move on to the next story.**

 **Rest in peace, Anton Yelchin.**


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